Rob & List, My choice would be to ream, although I have not used the rifle cleaning brush method. However, I can imagine what the stiff bristles of the brush can do - that of trimming away more wood than required when used to `somewhat' size the hole for the pins to be installed. Much depends on just how the brush is used. When repinning, or restringing pianos and using the original pinblock, I have always reamed when there was the need to size the tuning pin holes. Precision is the answer to the proper torque of tuning pins. For preparing to repin my first piano I ordered a spoon bit reamer, which was quickly put aside because of (in my estimation) its poor performance. I then made up my own reamers from high speed drill bits. I could make these to exact requirements and use the 3/8 drill to do the laborious part of the work. Being that tuning pins from the same box can vary in diameter, I could sort the pins, and by using properly sized reamers, have the torque come out the same throughout. To save bandwidth, I will not describe the making of reamers here. With the proper equipment and a little ingenuity the reamers can readily be made. If interested, you can e-mail me for details. Al Jeschke RPT Calgary, Alberta ===================== You wrote:- "Clean - don't Ream" was the title of a technical done at a long-ago seminar by Wendell Eaton and ? (I forget who). Their premise was that cleaning tuning pin holes with a rifle cleaning brush chucked up in a drill was a better way to approach the repinning problem than reaming the holes. I've been less than happy with some of the repinning work I've done over the years......none have been underpinned, but there have been some jumpers and a lot of supertight pins, particularly where I've not done anything at all to clean or ream the holes. Now I have to repin the bass on a Steinway "O". It's never been touched, and a few of the pins wouldn't hold at all, so I tapped them very lightly just to hold them for a week till I get down to work. As I consider reaming the holes, I checked in the Schaff and Apsco catalogues for reamer specs, and I note that the tolerances between recommended reamer size and pin size are not the same for both suppliers: (Pianotek's reamers come in assorted sizes, but no pin sizes are mentioned in the book). For 3/0 pins (nominally .286) Schaff suggests a .276 reamer, while Apsco lists a .280 reamer. For 4/0 pins (nominally .281) Schaff's reamer is .291 and Apsco's is .285. I know from drilling new pinblocks that there is a hell of a difference in torque between holes drilled at .010 tolerance and those at .006 tolerance. So what's the advice of the list on this? Should I ream, clean, or just plug 'em in? (I'd be using 4/0 in the bass, probably. And if reaming is best, what size reamer should I use? Rob Stuart-Vail
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