Hi Clark, Not sure about the plate. Perhaps if the molding above the plate is thick enough (a photo would help ;-] ) you might be able to remove the lower portion of the inner molding to give enough room to tilt the plate out. Otherwise, I think you're stuck with cutting it out. As far as the block goes, it's not too bad to duplicate a multi-tier block. We did a four-layer block in an old Henry Miller last year. Getting it out, you can cut the block at the inner rim, then use a large forstner bit, drilling out most of the mortised in block, then chisel out the remaining block - watch that it's not also screwed in - our Miller was. The screws were IN the mortise and we only discovered them with the (now trashed) forstner bit. For re-installation, you can cut an angle down into the mortise from the top, allowing you to cut the new block a little long, and shove one end into it's mortise, dropping the second end in where you cut the angle. This will allow you to have the new block at least partly mortised in when you are done. Fill in the gaps in the mortise with thickened epoxy if you choose. Multi-tier blocks typically require that you make a pattern of some sort, and cut the section out. On raised sections, I'll make a pattern either from the old block or the plate, plane an appropriately sized piece to approximate thickness, cut out the piece and fit it to the plate if there is a recess for it, then fit the main block on top of the piece. When it's all fit, put the piece in place, epoxy the surface, and clamp down the fitted main block on top of it. You can also make a pattern and use a router to remove material from the main block if there is a cut-out. Hope that helps. Let me know if you like, and I'll find some photos. William R. Monroe On Sun, Sep 5, 2010 at 9:15 AM, Clark Sprague <CSPRAGUE4 at woh.rr.com> wrote: > I first sent this posting with pictures attached, and it has not appeared > yet, on the list, so I am re-posting it without the pix. How do I get to > the "images", wherever they are, to see if the moderator has posted them > yet? > > Anybody got some stories about how they replaced a pinblock, or soundboard > on one of these? I saw this one yesterday. I got a call from another tech > ( I found out that the call went from the customer to one tech, to another > tech, to me, now I know why). The pinblock is two tiered, and the plate and > the block are mortised into the sides of the case. The soundboard has a > beautiful scrolled molding around the perimeter, that would be difficult to > remove without damaging, if one would try to remove it, I would guess. > Somebody restrung the piano, and put on new hammers, at some not that > distant past. They must have determined that the board was flat, and needed > to have more downbearing, so they put shims under the strings, right behind > the front bridge pins. The strings sit off the surface of the bridge at the > rear pins. > The hammers are huge. The centers are sluggish with vertigris, knuckles > flat, etc. Rocker capstans, I think is the right term? > Overall, I was surprised that the sound of the piano was pretty good. > Bass full, no dead strings. > Anybody have an idea of the value of this 8 1/2 foot beast? Serial > number is 10433 (I found it stamped in the keybed). Any advice on the > pinblock and soundboard would be welcomed, as well. > > > Clark A. Sprague, RPT > csprague4 at woh.rr.com > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100905/a5a5ee76/attachment.htm>
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