Air Hammer

[Farrell]

Hi Jeannie! Yes, the tip that is part of the nailer fits loosely over the
tuning pin. It's all you need. I've now used the nailer restringing all the
tenor and treble sections. It really works fabulous. I found that by varying
how much you push down on the pin, varies the rate of hammering. Thus, when
you get close to the desired pin height, you can slow right down and make
one or two blows at a time - perfect to fine-tune pin height. I cut a little
piece of firm foam the thickness from the plate to the bottom of the nailer
tip that hangs over the pin top. When I get close, I place the foam up to
the pin with my left hand and hold the nailer with my right. If I need a
little blow or two, I just apply a little pressure and POW, POW - recheck
and so on. I only made one big chew mark on the plate. OOPS! It's best to
keep two hands on the nailer until you get the feel for it. Call them. My
info is that the nailer I bought is the same model they sell to Baldwin,
etc.

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeannie Grassi" <jgrassi@silverlink.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, May 04, 2001 6:50 PM
Subject: RE: Air Hammer


> Hi Terry,
> What tip, or attachment did you use with your Danair Palm Nailer?  Does it
> come with something that will fit the tuning pins?
>
> Thanks,
> jeannie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]On Behalf
> Of Farrell
> Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2001 2:48 PM
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Air Hammer
>
>
> 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
>