[CAUT] Getting a leg up

Paul Chick (Earthlink) tune4 at earthlink.net
Tue Jan 30 11:06:14 MST 2007



-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Ron
Nossaman
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 10:21 AM
To: Pianotech; Caut at ptg.org
Subject: [CAUT] Getting a leg up


People being moved in from out of state, movers lost control 
of the Baldwin console on the ramp and it took brief but 
impressive flight. Result: both legs broken. I got the call 
and made the repair.

The plan was to pull the legs apart, drill for a reinforcement 
rod, and epoxy the mess back together using the break for 
alignment. Hah!

Baldwin had, apparently realizing the "break here" nature of 
the way too narrow profile at the top of the leg, had embedded 
a 3/8" threaded mild steel rod in the leg there. Swell idea. 
It didn't add anything in strength, but it kept the legs from 
falling clear off when they did break. Maybe that was the 
intention, in which case it worked great! Having to twist the 
legs off naturally trashed the nice clean breaks I originally 
had to look at, so I went to plan B.

A 1/2" threaded rod, to try to insure that the entire sides of 
the case would be broken off before the legs would break 
again, a couple of inches of McMaster-Carr brass tubing to 
hide and disguise the nasty looking joint and provide a wider 
leverage base for increased strength, and twice the epoxy and 
wood flour mix the thing would hole (mopping up the overflow), 
did the trick.

No touch up whatsoever required, and a resulting stronger 
joint than I had originally planned. The two turned steps on 
either side of the joint are the same diameter, so I could 
have gone with larger diameter tubing to fit them and gotten 
an even more solid joint (full of MORE epoxy), but I thought 
it would look too clunky. Not that this is all that beautiful, 
but it is relatively unobtrusive and looks to me like it might 
have been intentional rather than a patch.

For what it's worth to anyone interested.

Ron N

It's worth a lot to me.  I get about a dozen of these a year from local
dealers and movers.

Paul C




More information about the caut mailing list

This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC