[pianotech] bridge pin drill speeds

[David Love]

I use a regular drill and I don't think the speed matters that much, just
not too slow.  A high tech attachment  to keep things at the proper angle
(20 degrees).  In-out, one smooth move.  Set the bit in place, squeeze the
trigger, down and up. I don't like using a drill press for this procedure
because I want to be sure that the bit is set in the punch mark before I
start the drill spinning.   I prefer something heavier for this operation as
pictured.  I find it easier for me to keep things on line and steady with a
bit of weight to hold.  If you go too slow you are at greater risk for
breaking the bit.  Use a proper spiral type fast ejection bit and keep it
moving.  I actually prefer to do this in the piano but many don't, doesn't
matter to me.   I wouldn't worry about an "optimum" speed.  Do it with
something where the speed can be easily manually controlled and also stop at
will.  Nothing worse than a wandering bit for this procedure (except a
broken one).  

 

David Love

 

 

 

 

 

 

To those of you on the forum who do bridge recapping and such, I pose the
following question:  what do you consider to be an optimal RPM speed for the
bridge pin drill bit to be turning at?

 

I have a reason for this question.  In the past I have drilled my bridges in
the piano with the bridge glued on the board, and the board glued into the
rim,using a hand electric drill.  But I am in the process of changing my
bridge capping methodology whereby I am capping the bridge with horizontally
laminated veneers, and this means I will be planning the root to establish
down bearing, and then gluing on the laminated cap of established thickness
to it.  After I plane the bridge root, I will remove the bridge from the
panel (which is held in place by a multitude of screws) to readily glue on
the cap.  I want to take advantage of this access to drill and notch my
bridges as well, and then glue the bridge to the panel, and finally glue the
whole board into the rim.  Given that I will have the bridge off the panel
and attached to a work table, I am planning on making a drilling jig with
the desired drilling angle built in, along with an adjustable depth stop.
The jig would need to use some kind of small inline drill like a pneumatic
inline drill (about 2500 RPM) or and electric inline drilling tool (Dremel
tools 5,000 to 35,000 RPM)

 

Testing on my drill press at 2500 RPM, the pneumatic seems doable.  But the
hose attached to the tool can be unwieldy, so I am leaning towards an
electric tool.  But I am concerned that the speeds of 5,000 RPM up will be
too fast, and burn and expand the hole.  Does anyone have experience using a
Dremel type tool for bridge drilling?  

 

I will happily entertain other suggestions for tools.  Thanks for your
input.

 

Will





 

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