Air Hammer

[Farrell]

Just tried out my Danair Palm Nailer #RN-16-8 for the first time driving
three tuning pins into a pinblock. Holy cow cookies! That thing is slicker
than you-know-what!

Often as I drove a tuning pin by hand (with manual hammer) into a bare
pinblock, I could see the damage I did to the top of the hole as the pin
wiggled back and forth with each blow (hey, I'm a newbie!). I'm sure it
continued throughout the driving process. The couple pianos I have restrung,
resulted in acceptable (for me - I had low expectations), but far from
perfectly uniform tuning pin torque.

The three pins I drove into a bare pinblock resulted in 160 in-lbs. torque
for each one. Not 150, not 170, but all three were like exactly 160 in-lbs.
of torque. I had never done that before. Oh, boy, this has made my day. I
can hardly wait until after I finish restringing and start chipping/tuning.
Clearly, I am expecting fabulous results.

Thank you Del Fandrich and Roger Jolly (and anyone else that participated in
that thread - I know there were a few) - I recall that both of you use an
air powered hammer, and one of you recommended the Danair specifically. Man,
you just drive those puppies straight down. I am just absolutely amazed at
what a difference it makes! Fast, easy, and NO tuning pin wiggling.

What do you use as a guide for tuning pin driving depth control? On my bare
test holes, I used an one-inch-thick piece of hard maple with a 5/16-inch
hole drilled in it. I placed the maple guide over the tuning pin hole,
inserted the tuning pin, and drove it with the Palm Nailer until it would go
no further. That worked perfect - for a bare block. Now I need to figure out
what to use when I am driving the pin through the plate into the block. What
does anyone use? Something hard to physically stop the Palm Nailer from
going any further - or do you tape a stick or something to the thingee that
goes over the top of the tuning pin and just watch until it touches the
plate or whatever?

Can we adapt this thing for bridge pins - or just way too much horsepower?

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