hitch pin loop tool

[David Ilvedson]

Thanks John...

so the 1X1 hanging down the side of the piano and a C clamp?   with some cloth to protect the finish...

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA  94044

----- Original message ----------------------------------------
From: "John Delacour" <JD at Pianomaker.co.uk>
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Received: 2/11/2008 3:15:00 PM
Subject: Re: hitch pin loop tool


>At 14:34 -0800 11/2/08, David Ilvedson wrote:

>>I have always duplicated hitchpin loops on single strings with my 
>>round needle nose and a vice-grip.  It seems to me there was a 
>>simple tool using a dowel and a screw?   I'm talking about field 
>>work here.

>Field work or no, just a headless nail or screw about an inch long 
>sticking out of the end of a length of 1" x 1" hardwood is what I've 
>always used.  If I'm stringing a piano with all eyes, I clamp this to 
>the treble side of the (grand) piano.  Pull the wire tightly round 
>the pin so that when it is released the free end is 3" long or more 
>and at a right angle to the long end. Then grip the circle tightly 
>using smooth-jawed pliers (the jaws of mine are also about 3/4" 
>broad) and turn the finishing coils.

>Doing it this way you have to allow for the closing up of the eye 
>when the string is pulled to pitch and knocked close.  A firm in 
>London I know used an L-shaped pin and put on the finishing coils in 
>one movement with the forming of the loop, and I have tried this but 
>find it more uncomfortable and less reliable.  Either way there will 
>be closing of the wire round the hitchpin, and you can choose a nail 
>that will give you the final loop diameter you want.

>Let me know if you want pictures.

>JD