Shimming - was: Was it something I said?

[Farrell]

Hey Brian. Regarding shimming vs. new, if the money ain't there, or any
other prevailing reason, shimming can go pretty quick once you are set up.
You can rout out a number of lines and cut and glue and clamp a number of
shims in an afternoon - regular techs likely even do it faster.

The beauty of the Spurloc system is that you get this really nice cleanly
cut constant width cut just down to the rib. And its no sweat to make the
cut an inch wide if need be (although of course, make it only as wide as you
need). Just cut your shims to the same angle of the router bit and make them
thicker than your board - like about 3/4" thick. I just make about three or
four widths of shims. Then you choose a width that won't fall through the
slot, and set it in. It will rest on the ribs and not be touching the sides
of the slot. Run the shim through your table saw and take a tad off the
bottom. Fit again. Ohhhhhh close, but just a tad of play on the sides. Run
through saw again, just taking off a whisker from the shim bottom. Set back
in slot. Woowaaa. Perfect fit. Be careful because sometimes they fit so snug
that the unglued shim can be hard to remove! Slop some hide glue (or
whatever) on, put go bars in place. Go to sleep and dream of beautiful
women. Next day plane down excess & you are done.

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Trout" <btrout@desupernet.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 06, 2001 5:59 PM
Subject: Re: Was it something I said?


> Well, Terry, I guess I'll have to just 'fess up...
>
> When I was shimming boards, (which I haven't done in a number of years,)
I
> wasn't going the whole way through the board with the shim.  I had a tool
> that I did a little grinding on that I think was formerly a supply house
> tool, that would shave the wood out of the crack and open up a v-groove
for
> the shim to sit in.  I usually went about 3/4 of the way into the board,
> attempting to get things as uniform as I could so that I could get a
> reasonable glue joint.
>
> I think if I were to shim boards today, I would be much more interested in
a
> Spurlock type setup.  I likely wouldn't be using old boards for shim
stock.
> (Hmmm, I don't know if you could laminate two soundboards together for
shim
> stock successfully or not...  haven't tried that one...)  Or, the other
> possibility, using epoxy, seems to be something fairly simple, fast,
> effective, cheap, and fairly quick.
>
> Honestly, though, from the sounds of what some people will go through with
> fixing these old boards, I have to wonder how practical it is fixing an
old
> board as opposed to just making and installing a new one.
>
> Just thought I should 'fess up.
>
> Brian Trout
> Quarryville, PA
> btrout@desupernet.net
>
>