[pianotech] Repairing bridge root lamination splits

[David Love]

I think I probably would have just filled them with epoxy and some type of
adhesive blend or wood flour keeping the viscosity low enough to allow it to
seep into all the nooks and crannies.  You could still do that by drilling
out the existing plugs in that section.

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com


-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of William Truitt
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2009 1:23 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] Repairing bridge root lamination splits

  
To the list:

Enclosed is a picture of the root of the treble bridge for the 1909 Steinway
A2 in my shop that I am rebuilding.  I'm almost ready to glue on the bridge
caps to the root.  As you can see in the picture, I have plugged the bridge
pin holes with the small dowels that you get from Pianotek.  But you can
also see that in the high treble on the backside, the laminations have split
for about 5 or 6 unisons.  I am not satisfied that the plugs I inserted
there are going to give the bridge and pins the integrity they need, so I am
searching for a plan B to fill the offending space.

My thought is to cut some plugs out of bridge stock and glue them in.  The
idea would be to make the plugs slightly larger than the three pin holes,
drill the holes, and epoxy them in.  

Before I do that, I would be interested in the suggestions of others as to
their go-to methodology.

Will Truitt