My First Agraffe Repair

[William R. Monroe]

Robert,

I'd be cautious with using the old strings.  I know others have said go for
it, but from what you described, straightening out the old coil could
greatly fatigue the wire throughout that length, leading to broken strings.
Not saying don't do it, just saying in my experience, I've been bitten more
than once when I've had to bend the wire more than once, whether with a
splice or otherwise.  It just makes me nervous.

William R. Monroe



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Scott" <robert.scott@tunelab-world.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2005 7:16 PM
Subject: My First Agraffe Repair


>
> There’s a 1927 Steinway M whose strings are a little rusty.  Even after
> putting a drop of Protek where the strings go through the agraffe, one of
> them broke off at the threads while I was lowering the pitch of G#2 (a
> bichord).  So I guess I will be doing my first agraffe repair job.
>
> What worries me the most is how to decide whether to put one more
> half-turn into the agraffe.  I don’t want to leave the agraffe too loose,
> and I don’t want to tighten it so tight that I break it off.  Ideally, I
> would like a torque spec so I could use a torque wrench to help me make
> the decision.  If the agraffe is pointing in the right direction, but the
> torque is less than X ft-lb, then I will go for another half-turn.  Can
> anyone tell me what ft-lb limit I should use?  I guess most of you who do
> this a lot develop a feel for how tight is enough, but I  need to get it
> right the first time.
>
> In addition, I also wonder how one goes about centering the drill for the
> easy-out on the remains of the old agraffe so that threads in the plate
> are not damaged.  Should I expect to mess them up and just commit to going
> up from the current 7/32" size to the 1/4" size agraffe by re-tapping the
> plate?  And even if I don’t mess up the threads, it is usual to run a tap
> through them anyway just to clean them up before the new agraffe is
> installed?
>
> Finally, I managed to remove the old bass strings without cutting them by
> straightening them just enough to slide through the old agraffe, so that
> maybe I could re-use the old bass strings.  Is that a reasonable
> expectation?
>
> Robert Scott
> Ypsilanti, Michigan
> _______________________________________________
> pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
>
>