woe on the boat,(block epoxy)

[David Ilvedson]

Hey, I have just the piano for your customer...Wurlitzer Tom Thumb piano, 54 notes or so, 3 strings per unison,   I have had it for many years.   It's in pieces and needs putting back together and finishing up.   This will be a nice little piano...

David Ilvedson



----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: <A440A@aol.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Received: Tue, 31 May 2005 10:56:17 EDT
Subject: woe on the boat,(block epoxy)


>Greetings, 
>    Ok,  so I took it in a weak moment, but it is on the bench and I gotta 
>deal with it.  
>A local jazz musician, completely disgusted with the sound of electric 
>keyboards on jazz gigs, went looking for an easily portable acoustic piano.  He 
>found it on Ebay.  It is a 1910 Cramer "Ship piano".  Five octaves, fold-out 
>keyboard, weighs about 150 pounds.  67 bass strings in bichords and a few strung 
>notes on top.  Oh, did I mention the bird cage?  
>    Anyhow, the ribs were almost completely separated from the board, the 
>board was separated from most of the back, and the posts were loose at the sides 
>and bottom.  The bridges were also easily popped off once the strings were 
>removed.  I got all that stuff reglued, and will be putting the soundboard back 
>in tomorrow.  The block is the last real task to deal with. The block comprises 
>the upper portion of the sounding assembly and there was no way to remove it 
>without completely destroying the piano and starting from scratch. 
>    The piano was strung with atypical tuning pins, (at least, in my 
>experience).  They are .250" diameter and only 2 inches long.  These are smaller than 
>any piano pins I know of, and larger than the zither/harpsichord pins.  The 
>dainty little plate doesn't encourage me to drill the holes out to accomodate 
>the 1/0 pins, and they are all too long,anyhow.   I can only imagine re-using 
>the originals.  There was marginal torque on quite a few of them prior to 
>disassembly, so I want to treat the block before driving them back.  
>    I have, against all my "traditional" training, become a fan of CA glue in 
>the treatment of loose pins, but I wonder if I can't do something a little 
>more extreme with this block.  I know that some of you have used the West System 
>epoxy in block repair, and would like to know what your technique is.  The 
>block is a solid beech beam with two very thin laminations on top.  Any ideas?  
>Thanks, 

>Ed Foote RPT 
>http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
>www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
> 
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