I have run into this too, but never with nails for capstans. Here is an article I wrote for our chapter newsletter in 2006. Sorry, no photos. The Weird Stuff: Falling Apart By Bruce Dornfeld, RPT There is a repair I have done only about once a decade, which qualifies it as weird. The spinets are the only ones I’ve seen, but it might happen to bigger vertical pianos too. The client will either complain that the piano won’t play, or that it is falling apart. The source of the problem is that the sides have come unglued. Since the sides hold the keybed, it usually causes the keybed to droop and it plays like the keys start about three quarters of the way down, that’s about where they are at rest now! The two I can remember repairing are a Wurlitzer spinet from 1956 and an Acrosonic spinet from 1945. The quick and easy way to confirm the diagnosis is to lift up on one of the sides. If it moves and the rest of the piano stays put, you know the sides are loose. You might also be able to see lines that are not parallel where the bad glue joint was. Once you have figured out the problem, it is not so hard to fix, but there are a few things that can go wrong and it is not easy to re-repair. First, remove the cabinet parts as you would for tuning, plus the bottom board and completely remove the top. Then unscrew any cabinet screws that go between the keybed to the rest of the piano, or any others that interfere with moving the keybed into proper position. Leave the action in place if possible; it will help keep things in line. Long clamps are needed; pipe clamps work very well for this. They need to be a bit longer than the piano from side to side. Some wood is needed to protect the finish from the big clamps. I carry a couple of scraps of ½” pine about 10” x 10” for this and other jobs. You might want some smaller clamps too, if one of the back posts needs clamping at the side because of some splitting or something. You also need some small pieces of wood or shims (an inch or so) to go under the front of the piano, on either side of the pedals. This wood will get the sides lined up where they should be. Let me explain this a bit. If the weight of the piano is on the back wheels and the front legs, usually that is fine. But if the sides are unglued, the back of the keybed will sag. Putting some support under the front of the piano holds the body of the piano straight up again. This should hold the keybed in a normal position to the piano; test it by playing the keys that wouldn’t play before. Ideally, they should play well and have the same amount of lost motion as before the falling apart. Lost motion should be the same in high treble and bass. When you get this alignment, use a long spatula, get a good amount of Titebond glue in between the loose sides and the back, and then clamp them up. Have a wet cloth ready for the glue squeeze-out; if there isn’t any, you did not use enough glue! This was probably part of what caused this trouble in the first place! Leave the supports under the piano until after the clamps are removed. I recommend leaving the clamps tight overnight at least. That is more time than normal for a glue joint, but it is a very large one and the water cannot evaporate from it easily. Just as soon as those clamps and supports are removed, there will be hundreds of pounds pulling on those glue joints. I made the mistake of moving the piano off of the supports too early once, it did not hold well. In less than five years it needed to be reglued again! After you get the clamps off and return the piano to its normal place in the room, it’s time to regulate the action. If everything went right back where it was, it may or may not need normal regulation now. But if things did not go back perfectly, you may need to get the action brackets secure where they belong. You will need to use your judgment to decide whether to adjust the supports under the action brackets up or down, or to bend the bracket bolts up or down. The action should be held fast between these; if it can move, the piano will squeak or groan when the sustain pedal is used. The support bolt under the action should be adjusted with an adjustable wrench, but pliers or vice grips will do. Bending the bracket bolts that hold the action at the top is best done with a piece of pipe. On the treble end, listen for good tone. Adjust the strike point if needed. If you ever do this repair, your client will think you are a hero! You took a piano that was falling apart and not playable, and you restored it to is former, if faded, glory. It is a large repair, but it is also a simple one that should take no more than two to four hours. When you run into a falling apart piano, you might suggest they buy a newer better piano. There are plenty to choose from. I would rather give the option to my client. After all, I am not a piano salesman, but a technician. It may be weird, but I fix pianos for a living. Bruce Dornfeld, RPT bdornfeld at earthlink.net North Shore Chapter -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090912/b89566ea/attachment-0001.htm>
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