old "elbow" plastic

[Alan R. Barnard]

Well, I ran into a Gulbransen console with elbows and all flanges made out
of that  stuff. Many were broken and the slightest touch crumbled the
others. Don't know the answer, but lack of exposure doesn't seem to be the
problem. I replace all the parts with synthetic weasel bladders (actually,
all wood flanges and acrylic elbows).

Alan Barnard
Salem, MO



----- Original Message -----
From: "pianolover 88" <pianolover88@hotmail.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 2:12 PM
Subject: old "elbow" plastic


Hi List,

Doing some action repair on a customer's old 1950's Sohmer spinet. Not only
are the sticker elbows made of that old dried out, crumbly plastic, but so
are the hammer butt and damper flanges! But here's the weird part; the
flanges seem to be just fine, and show no apparent signs of decomposition. I
removed a few samples and checked their stability and applied the same (even
more) pressure that easily turned the elbows into powder, and they held up
just fine! They appear to be made of the EXACT same plastic, so i'm
wondering HOW the elbows have all but disintegrated, but the flanges are,
seemingly, just fine. Could it be that because the flages, being  somewhat
less exposed than the elbows, have somehow been preserved? Anyway, I just
found this quite curious.

PS: I recently tuned a German Studio piano Import known as "Herman Schaaf",
with the action made in Berlin. The customer says it's from the 40's, but I
could not find a serial number anywhere except on the action, which does not
correspond with the Atlas. Anyway, I have NEVER tuned a piano with tuning
pins configured in such a strange, NON-Tech friendly way. The tuning pins
are set in the block in such a way with the plate recessed inward slanting
upward, so it's almost impossible to get a tuning hammer on the pin in the
usual 12 O'clock or thereabouts manner, unless you have a 30 degree, long
tip and extend your shaft ALL the way put! Solution? I did my very FIRST
left-handed tuning, using the mammer in the 9 O'clock position and "pushing"
the pin upward! In addition, the piano was grossly flat ranging between
100-180C flat!  But hey, it was a challenge, I learned from the experience,
and not one broken string!


Terry Peterson




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