[pianotech] antique plate cracks, weld or junk it?

[wimblees at aol.com]

The plate repair is possible. Restringing is possible.? Be sure the auctioneer pays you before he puts the piano up for bid. Even though the case looks nice,?I doubt if a restrung piano like that will be worth more than what he puts into it. 


Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT
Piano Tuner/Technician
Mililani, Oahu, HI
808-349-2943
Author of: 
The Business of Piano Tuning
available from Potter Press
www.pianotuning.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Graham <grahampianos at yahoo.com>
To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 7:49 pm
Subject: [pianotech] antique plate cracks, weld or junk it?



Local auction house has an antique "Ludv. Wulff,  KJOBENHAVN"  grand with two 
plate cracks in the vicinity of the tuning pins for octave five.  

The pinblock is open, and the cracks are right where the plate "ends" and the 
pinblock begins.  A major stress concentrator, I'm sure.  

Auctioneer wants to have the plate welded and piano restrung, thinking he can 
get several thousand $$ based on the appearance of the fancy case.  I suppose it 
would bring a couple hundred $$ without repairs, if that.  

For those who have successfully repaired plate cracks, does this one look 
workable?  I've never dealt with plate repair, and certainly not an antique, 
open block plate at that.

Photos attached. 

Thanks, 
Greg Graham
  




[Image Removed] 


[Image Removed] 


[Image Removed] 


[Image Removed] 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090116/b5624aee/attachment.html>