quick and dirty field repair

[Dean May]

I was working on a pso spinet yesterday with multiple problems for a family
with a limited budget. One hammer had lost the felt and about ten others had
come apart on one side. I used Goop, needle nose vice grips and dental
floss. I pulled the loose felts the rest of the way off to get a good
coating of glue. I held the glued felt in place with the needle nose vice
grips, clamping the ends of the felt from the shank end of the molding. This
left the head of the hammer open so I could wrap the dental floss around it.
I pulled out about 20 inches of dental loss and tied a loop in one end to
form a lasso, leaving a good 3-4 inches of the short end of the floss
sticking out of the loop's knot. This gave me something to tie off against
later. The beauty of doing the lasso is that it gives you the first loop
around the felt without a knot, and it is self tightening. After pulling the
first loop down tight, it stayed tight while I wrapped 4 more loops around
the felt. Then I tied it off and went to the next hammer.

Worried about the remaining hammers, I soaked CA glue into the tail end of
the felt on top and bottom. It will be interesting to see if it holds.

One key in the treble section cracked at the dog leg. CA glue fixed it.

One corroded tenor string broke during tuning. I cut it off near the hitch
pin and formed a loop on the unbroken leg of the wire to keep 2 strings on
the note. It held.

Total time outside of tuning: about 45 minutes. Charges: $50.

Of course this is a piano that should be junked, but it is all the family
can afford and it gives their girls something to practice on.

Dean
Dean May             cell 812.239.3359
PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272
Terre Haute IN  47802