Removing tuning pins with the Milwaukee Drill

[A440A@aol.com]

Ross writes: 
<< If you really spun them out, they would be too hot to touch.  There might 
also be wisps of smoke.  If the old pins were warm but not hot, perhaps they 
were loose.  Did any wood stick to the old pins; sometimes little bits of wood 
will stick to the pins.  Boy Scouts start fires by this kind of procedure, 
wood on wood.  Friction produces heat.  How long does it take you to remove a set 
of pins with a Milwaukee drill.  Takes me a couple of hours to do it by hand; 
and, it's not that hard.   >>

Greetings, 
     I have used a Milwaulkee "Magnum" 1/2" drill to remove pins for years.  
They often come out too hot to touch.  Depending on the condition of the 
block, I will go up one or two sizes, (and now that there are half-sizes available, 
I will probably try them), and have never encountered jumpy pins because of 
it.  I don't use any pin-driving fluid, and it seems to make no difference if I 
hammer the new pins in, or use a palm-nailer.  
       I like to see between 100 and 125 in/lbs of torque, so new blocks(I 
like the Bolduc or Steinway factory maple),  begin around 150 and old blocks 
usually show about 125 in/lbs.  I do keep my hands clean and taped when I 
restring, and the pins are kept in a tray with talc on them.  I also like to rinse 
the new pins in two baths of lacquer thinner; it is amazing how much oil or 
grease is either in the becket holes, or on the pins themselves.  
    The last time I removed a set of tuning pins with the drill, it took 20 
minutes.  I cut the beckets with a coil setter and leave the strings in place 
until all the pins are out.  The last time I timed myself on a Steinway 
restringing,  when I was younger and hadn't met "Arthur-itis", it took 24 hours of 
work beginning with the taking of measurements before removing the block to 
chipping the new strings in their new block .  This work included new bridge pins 
on the speaking length of the top three octaves, and cleaning up the bridge 
notching, as well as resurfacing the capo bar and burnishing the insides of the 
agraffes.  (And yes, I do fit the block to the flange, the webbing, and I 
dowel it into the front stretcher).  
Regards,   
Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html