SPINET OUT OF CONTROL

[james allen bickerton]

I performed a Pitch Raise/Tuning on an old Wurlitzer Spinet (1969).  It
took about 3 hours and was difficult at best because the piano was very
unstable (probably due to not being tuned in years), and when trying to
fine tune a string, it would jump from sharp to flat (i.e. the tuning
pins were sloppy).
  Satisfied that I had performed the tuning to the best of my ability, I
promptly wrote out my standard Pitch Raise bill ($90.00), when the owner
informed me that "one of the keys was sticking."  Sure enough, one of
the keys was sluggish (something I didn't notice during the tuning."
  While peering through the action at the offensive key, I notice that
the jack was offset, and while playing the key, I realized that the
broken/misplaced jack was the culprit.
  Then I did something REALLY STUPID.  I took the action out of the
piano.  Sure enough, the pin holding the jack in the whippen had come
loose, and securing the pin was easy.  What wasn't easy was putting the
action back in, and REGULATING IT!  Two days later, and a broken key
(from screwing down a sticker screw too tight), I finally had the piano
adjusted close enough to where it played as well as it did before.
  MY QUESTION IS THIS - when working on a piano that is worth $200 tops,
where do you draw the line when it comes to repair work?  I mean, it
seems to me that there is an element of risk involved when working on a
piano that is close to junk quality.
  In time and money, I lost big time on this one!!!