If I may, I have a 'tip' for getting these out. Schaff sells a large T-handle with tuning pin tip on it. I found this to be the best method for this type of broken pin, and have seen it used in factories when they get a broken pin. In these pianos the pin material is soft, and the fit is very tight, so a normal extractor sometimes won't work. After taking the string off, you place the T-handle tool on the pin and hammer it onto the pin so that the teeth of the star tip dig into the edges of the broken pin. Drive it on hard, but not so hard that you start to drive the pin into the block of course. Once it's biting into the pin solidly, turn out the pin. With an upright you need to have some kind of wedge bracing the piano against a wall, because you must maintain very firm pressure on the T-handle while you spin the pin out. Try not to let the tool wobble, especially at first. Don Mannino From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Jack Houweling Sent: Friday, November 26, 2010 9:18 PM To: Pianotech List Subject: [pianotech] broken tuning pin I tuned this Chinese piano the other day and the pin twisted broke off. It was a brand new piano, called A.Grand. Lucky I got the string in tune. It is holding fine and I am deciding whether to fix it or not. I think we will be seeing more of these. Regards, Jack Houweling -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101127/5d4d5c97/attachment.htm>
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