A Hitch in a hitchpin

[Greg Newell]

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Ed,
         How about vise grips on a slide hammer?

Greg Newell



At 06:15 PM 12/17/2003, you wrote:

>Greetings,
>    I am faced with an interesting, uncommon, repair.  On a 3 year old,
>high-end piano, a hitch pin has slowly straightened up.  This explains why=
=20
>both
>myself and the dealer's technician were called back to retune a seriously=
=20
>out of
>tune Eb 55.  It was always the two right strings, and on my call back, I
>noticed that the hitch pin on that one note was standing nearly=20
>vertical.  It makes
>me think that it is the culprit here.
>   Factory advises that the plate is drilled through, so tapping a broken=
 off
>piece downward is their recommended procedure, if the pin cannot be simply
>pulled out from above.  The hole is drilled straight down, and the pins=20
>are bent
>backwards.  I am envisioning what it would take to most carefully pull a
>damaged pin out of the plate.  I have thought about a small pair of vice=20
>grips with
>a notch ground into the front of their jaws, so that the prongs of a prybar
>or claws of a hammer will fit into, and at least align the beginning pull
>directly over the center of the hole.
>    I have done this in the shop, but never in a piano that is strung. =
 I'll
>have to make a guess as to how much clearance I have 'twixt plate and=20
>board.  I
>have visions of driving the bottom of the pin into a soundboard and
>splintering a rib, while chipping huge chunks out of the plate finish=20
>around the pin. I
>imagine the whine of the dremel tool signaling total collapse into the=
 valley
>of broken dreams and plates.
>    Any experience out there?  I HATE it when I reinvent the wheel, so if
>anybody has a tried and true approach here, I would certainly like to hear=
=20
>it.
>Thanks,
>Ed Foote RPT
>http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
>www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
>  <A=
 HREF=3D"http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/399/six_degrees_of_tonality.html">
>MP3.com: Six Degrees of Tonality</A>
>_______________________________________________
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>
>
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Greg Newell
Greg's piano Fort=E9
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net=20

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