Lesson learned.....

[David Ilvedson]

It makes sense, but don't we have to turn the piano on it's back to do this?   If I've brought in my tipper and turned it over I'd probably just go ahead and do them all ...I'd just give it a drop...but then I've never actually done this....not many loose tuning pins in my neck of the woods...(where does that expression come from?)

David I.


----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "Susan Kline" <skline@peak.org>
To: Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
Received: 9/23/2005 9:04:05 AM
Subject: RE: Lesson learned.....


>At 10:31 AM 9/23/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>>I use drop cloths now, always.

>How about using LESS GLUE!?!??

>This whole thread just shouts at me, "they are using too much!"
>Like pouring someone a cup of coffee, and you don't think you've done it
>right until the coffee slops over the saucer onto the tablecloth.

>I know we're in the early stages of using CA glue, without a great deal
>of hard data as to the effects of more or less, and the timing of the
>application(s), but I get the strong feeling that less is better, and
>that two small applications is much better than one flooding. The first
>(small) application seals the tiny cracks, and the second re-lines the
>tuning pin holes. Well, that's how I account for what I observe.

>The great blessing of CA for loose pins, it seems to me, is that by
>following small cracks, it improves the other loose pins in the area.
>Some of what we used to do, like tapping down a loose pin or using an
>oversized pin, made the neighbors worse. So, if using CA on a really
>bad pin, surrounded by sort of bad pins, will help them all to a certain
>extent, and will certainly prepare the area for more glue if it is
>needed later, by sealing some of the small cracks, why try to do it
>all at once?

>It also sounds like people are flooding every single tuning pin as a
>standard practice. Maybe it's just our benign climate, but even the bad
>pinblocks I work on here (refugees from other places) have large sections
>where all the pins are tunable and okay, though not really snug.
>Why not just put the stuff where it is needed, and leave the rest alone?

>So far, it's worked for me to not tilt the piano. I put some CA at the seam
>at the top of the tuning pin, wait a little, put a little more on. I use
>Loctite's little plastic bottle with the long narrow spout. It just lives
>in my kit. If CA starts to run down the plate, I sop it up with the corner
>of a shop towel. After a few minutes, I try to tune it. Once in awhile,
>I give it a little more, but most of the time it's tunable after ten
>minutes. On repeat visits, the old treated pins are okay, and I'll do a
>couple more if need be.

>It's also a lot less time and fuss and mess to treat only the pins which
>won't hold. The job just slips into a normal tuning, like dusting off the
>innards, fixing a couple bobbling notes, bending a scraping bridle wire,
>etc. A few minutes as needed, and if one sees the piano on a regular
>basis, pretty soon loose pins aren't a problem with it. (in my experience 
>.. YMMV)

>Susan 

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