frozen adjustment screws

[Alan R. Barnard]

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Well, I service a beautiful little chick that is, methinks, no-way older =
than the 1920's or 30's (serial number is MIA) or so and it has wooden =
stack brackets, plywood actually. Don't know how long they used them ... =
anyone? A little epoxy goes a long way gluing old laminations together =
...

I would take the let-off rail out of the action, spray the screws and =
the top of the rail with WD-40 (soak it pretty good). Then let all that =
dry thoroughly--use a heat gun (careful) or hair dryer if you want to. =
Then take a heavy soldering iron (not the wimpy little electronics kind) =
or a pencil torch (careful) and heat each screw near the wood. Don't let =
it get glowing-hot, just heat it enough so the heat transfers down into =
the screw in the wood. Then gently, slowly use a reg tool to turn the =
screw out, remove from the action and replace with new screws if they =
are rusty.

Anyway, this has worked pretty well for me twice. On a third occasion, =
it was so bad that I had a cabinet shop duplicate the original rail in =
rock maple; used the old rail (now in two pieces after a clumsy attempt =
at drill-and-plug) as a template to mark the holes. Drilled for all the =
reg and mounting screws. Used an electric drill to run the new reg =
screws in and screwed on new buttons and felts. It wasn't such a bad =
job, and came out great.

I'd much rather have a treble string go "KWANGGGG!" when tuning than =
have a regulating screw go 'penk' while regulating.

Alan Barnard, The Voice of Limited Experience

P.S. That's how they go, they go 'penk.' It's just so quiet no one can =
hear it.


  ----- Original Message -----=20
  From: Pianofxrguy@aol.com=20
  To: pianotech@ptg.org=20
  Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2002 8:11 AM
  Subject: frozen adjustment screws


  I have a customer with a Chickering grand that I think is well over a =
hundred years old. (The action brackets are wooden.) It may never have =
had the action regulated. I broke the first two adj. screws I attempted =
to turn, put a few drops of Protek CLP on and tried again in a week. =
They were still not budging. It seems like this was discussed on the =
list some time ago, but I couldn't find the right search parameters in =
the search engine. Does anybody have an idea of what to drip, spray, =
inject into the wood to allow movement of the screws and, ultimately, =
regulation of the action? Or, alternatively, the proper search terms for =
the archives?
  Thanks,
  John Stroup
  South Bend, Ind.=20

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