CA glue vs. PinTite

[Farrell]

With a vertical, I tip the piano back, but do not turn out pins or remove
action. I tip the piano back, and just squirt away (using care to not be
sloppy), putting as much at the base of the pin as will soak in. If I am
doing all pins (not always is this the case), I will use between one and
three of the little (4 oz.?) bottles of the thin CA glue. I have done this
to perhaps ten or more pianos, and all but two have had great results. Two
were a bit improved, but still were not great. Bottom line: good option
under the right conditions.

Terry Farrell
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Kline" <sckline@home.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2000 8:07 AM
Subject: Re: CA glue vs. PinTite


> I recently tried CA glue for a very old Zimmerman upright
> with loose pins. It is the first time that I have used it
> for more than a pin or two.
>
> In this case, I tried to be fairly conservative. I tilted
> the piano, and because there were plate bushings, I slacked
> off the strings on the worst notes, removed the coils, and
> turned out the pins. For the very worst note I turned the pin
> all the way out, swabbed the hole with CA by putting some
> on a piece of hammer shank, put some more CA on the tuning
> pin sides, and turned it back in. It set up fairly quickly,
> but was a little bit jumpy.
>
> That seemed pretty laborious, so for the other 6 or seven
> notes (ca. 10-12 pins) I took off the coils, turned them
> about 1/2 way out, dripped CA glue on the sides, and turned
> them back in.
>
> I liked the results. Within a few minutes I could get them
> to hold, and they weren't jumpy like my first attempt. I
> returned to the piano a couple of weeks later, to put on a
> new bass string, and the notes were holding well. Pitch was
> a little low from being slacked off, but not much, and the
> pins felt good as I touched up the tuning.
>
> I'm wondering now if I could have done individual pins
> without tilting the piano, just removing the action, turning
> out the offending pin(s) halfway out, dripping the CA
> carefully so it coated the exposed threads without
> getting all over the place, and turning back in. It would
> surely save time and bother not to tilt the piano.
>
> As you can tell, I like CA for notes that truly need it,
> rather than a blanket approach. Lots less work, and seems
> effective. If I can develop a system that doesn't take
> a ton of labor, it could almost turn into "ongoing maintenance,"
> getting done to individual pins as needed, possibly
> several years apart.
>
> Susan Kline
>