upright pinblock separation

[Farrell]

I did a similar repair a while back on a 1960s Baldwin Hamilton studio. The separation was a good 1/2". Repair worked great. I have tuning piano since repair and all is well. Here is what I did:

- let tension down a couple steps (a must with a big separation)
- cleaned out debris from separation (vacuum, probe, etc.)
- put about 8 pipe clamps on the rascal and drew it together ssssllllloooooowwwwwly
- drilled several 3/8" (I think) holes through plate and through back posts 
        (put bolts through every back post)
- let pipe clamps slacken
- gooped in thickened West System epoxy
- cranked back down on pipe clamps
- inserted bolts
- tightened bolts and clamps and bolts and clamps, etc. (I cranked HARD on those clamps.....left maybe
     a 1/8" or less separation - that's why you want to use the proper epoxy on a large separation)
- cleaned off squeeze out
- let cure for day or two
- remove clamps
- pitch adjust (pulling the plate back just about brought it back up to pitch!)
- tune
- play
- collect money

I did the repair on two visits in a total of six hours. Go for it, it's fun. It gets the adrenaline going! And yes, it is amazing how flexable a plate really is. I would suggest that you warn the customer that there is a risk of the plate breaking. Have fun!

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Love" <davidlovepianos@earthlink.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, February 15, 2002 6:32 PM
Subject: upright pinblock separation


Ran into an alarming problem today.  Went to tune a 90 year old upright.  When I opened the lid I discovered it was loose.  So I removed it and saw that the pin block had pulled away from the horizontal back beam by about 3/4", pulled the large wood screws right out..  My first thought was to run like hell before I got sandwiched by an imploding piano.  But cooler heads prevailed and I stood well to the side as I discussed the dilemma with the customer.  It turns out he and his buddies just hoisted through the bedroom window in some fashion that I didn't quite understand.  I don't know how long the problem has been there, but the piano was quite flat.  My questions are:

Does this pose an imminent exploding problem?

Can it be fixed by letting down the tension, squeezing the whole mess together with epoxy and pulling it back up?

Why hasn't the plate cracked?  It remains fixed lower down.

Should the customer just push it back out the window?

Your thoughts are appreciated.

David Love