More Advice Sought for 100+ Year Old Bechstein

[Farrell]

Any good marine store will have it. It's biggest use comes from the marine industry - both wooden and fiberglass boats. http://www.westsystem.com One of the keys to a strong epoxy bond is to "wet-out" the surfaces with unthickened epoxy. Then you use the thickened stuff to fill whatever gaps you have. If these legs have some kind of metal rod between the two pieces, it may be fine to re-use the rod. Remember with epoxy, you don't want tight fitting joints - quite unlike a hide glue joint. 

Clean up the old glue or whatever from the two surfaces to be mated. The legs I am repairing with epoxy, I am simply setting the base on a table up-side-down, applying epoxy, and setting the lower part of the leg (long part) into position on top of it. No clamps. The little bit of weight of the leg will be plenty to hold it in place, but not squeeze all the epoxy out. My legs have the wood broken in an irregular pattern - excellent for epoxy repair because the two surfaces never fit together perfectly on such a break!

Good luck. Remember also that the epoxy requires 24 hours for an 80%-90% cure. IMHO, this is a shop repair. I would wait two days minimum before setting the piano back down on an epoxy repaired leg (longer if possible).

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Billbrpt@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 9:10 AM
Subject: Re: More Advice Sought for 100+ Year Old Bechstein


> In a message dated 8/14/02 7:43:47 AM Central Daylight Time, 
> mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com (Farrell) writes:
> 
> 
> > Are you speaking of rods going between the long part of the leg and the base 
> > to secure these two pieces together? I have two legs in my shop right now 
> > that are broken. They broke between these two parts. There was a 1-1/4" 
> > dowel connecting them. I have drilled four 7/8" holes in each base and four 
> > in each long part. I have cut eight 4" long 3/4" oak dowels to join them. I 
> > will wet all surfaces down with unthickened West System epoxy, and then 
> > apply epoxy thickened with high-strength adhesive filler - put a bunch in 
> > all holes - it will ooze out when dowels go in and fill the small gap 
> > between the flatish mating surfaces of the long piece and the base. The 
> > four 3/4" dowels have 50% more cross sectional area than the original 
> > dowel, although the epoxy should be enough all on its own! I am doing a 
> > similar procedure to the broken lyre.
> > 
> > To remove a leg, just prop the piano up on a couple strong milk crates or 
> > use a jack - no reason to necessarily go over on the side.
> > 
> > Is this what you were asking about?
> > 
> > Terry Farrell
> > 
> Yes, precisely, Terry and thanks a lot for answering.  I've been in the 
> business 10 times as long as you but this is an area I know very little 
> about.  Even when I was rebuilding pianos, I never did much with legs other 
> than take them off and put them back on and even then, the other help around 
> the shop usually did that.
> 
> I'm not at all sure about how these legs are constructed or what I will find 
> wrong with them.  I just want to repair them very securely so that they will 
> never again be a problem.  That should be worth a day's pay which is what I 
> am planning on.  I will have to drive 40 miles to get there, it is in a 
> remote location.  If I need any hardware, I will have to drive into the 
> nearest town to get it.
> 
> Another very helpful thing you mentioned was the brand name of epoxy you are 
> suggesting:  West System.  Where can I get some?  Other than hardware stores, 
> I know of one specialty shop which sells high quality tools and supplies to 
> carpenters and such.  I don't know if it is still there but I used to get 
> things there when I was rebuilding years ago.  Where do you get your epoxy?
> 
> (Just looked in the phone book.  "Workbench Tool Company and Supplies" is 
> still at the same address it was years ago.)  Please list the specific 
> materials to get.  And thanks again for your input.
> 
> Bill Bremmer RPT
> Madison, Wisconsin
>  <A HREF="http://www.billbremmer.com/">Click here: -=w w w . b i l l b r e m m e r . c o m =-</A> 
> 
> Bill Bremmer RPT
> Madison, Wisconsin
>  <A HREF="http://www.billbremmer.com/">Click here: -=w w w . b i l l b r e m m e r . c o m =-</A> 
>