Pin Block Treatment

[Warren Fisher]

Sy Zabrocki wrote:
>
> >From Sy Zabrocki--Billings, Montana
>
> Ken Hale replied to a message pertaining to Ice Cream Spill (Nov. 23). He said the following:
>
> For you "newbies" to our trade, glycerine is the main ingredient of the
> infamous liquid tuning pin "tightener" still sold by some of the supply
> houses, which turns pin block wood into mush and causes terminal rust to
> any wire it touches.  Believe me, ignoring the problem is more
> responsible than using that stuff!
>
Dear Mr. Zabroski,

First of all, Ken Hale did not write the above statement, Warren Fisher
did!  Obviously I botched up the message I sent, which was number six I
think. The difference between your point of view and mine is about 40%
average annual humidity!  MORE.  Glycerine is extremely hydroscopic
(attracts moisture from the air).  In your area you must not have much,
but in New Orleans and most of the southeast, the percentage rarely gets
below 50% and hovers around 80-100% from May to September!  What this
means is the glycerine keeps the pin block continuously wet! The wire
coils that were dripped on, stay wet for over a week, and rust
thoroughly enough to break in a couple of years. When I looked at coils,
where they were resting against the pin, there was heavy rust.  The
plate bushings are moist enough to scrape greasy wood mush from with a
knife.

I cut apart a pin block from an old upright whose tuning pins were
angled 5 degrees BELOW horizontal instead of seven degrees above with a
sixteeeth inch space between the pin, where it entered the block and the
top of the hole!  The pins extracted therefrom, were rusty throughout
the threaded area.  The sides of the holes inside, just looked nasty.  I
didn't treat that old monster with this stuff, but I did treat an old
clunker grand that later got five inches of floodwater and observed
plate bushings that were competely covered with condensation afterward.
When I told my customer what it was going to cost to make it well again,
she blanched and dropped it off at the local dump!  I threw all my
"restorer" away.

I'll get off my soapbox!  What's good for the goose may be fatal for the
gander!

						Warren