Flange Bushing Cloth

[Michael Spalding]

Benny,

There's good discussions on how to do this in either Steve Brady's "A Piano
Technician's Guide to Field Repairs", or a Bill Spurlock article in the PTG
Technical Exam Source Book.  To answer your specific questions:  A #37
drill works better for reaming than a 7/64.  At  0.104",  It's only a
couple thousandths of an inch smaller, but it usually is a better fit to
the original hole, so it removes only felt, not wood.  Turn
counterclockwise while inserting, then clockwise to ream.  Tearing your own
strips is the only way to go:  more economical than buying pre-cut, and
nobody's gunked it up with graphite.  the rule of thumb for bushing cloth
width in small holes is about 2 1/2 times the hole diameter, which  says
that  17/64 should be about right.  Control the width by nicking with a
razor, then tearing from the nick.  The torn width will appear wider than
the nicked width because of the edge fuzz, so you might have to do a couple
to get calibrated.  Renner sells bushing cloth in approximate 1 square foot
pieces for about $10 each, choice of  four thicknesses: 1.0mm, 1.2mm,
1.35mm, 1.5mm.  I haven't done any flange centers for a while, but I think
the 1.0 works out about right in a .104 hole.

hope that helps,

Mike Spalding

> [Original Message]
> From: Benny L. Tucker <precisionpiano@alltel.net>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Date: 1/21/2004 6:39:30 PM
> Subject: Flange Bushing Cloth
>
> List,
>     I took on one of those jobs that I didn't really want, to re-pin the
> butt flanges on an old upright action. While most bushings presented no
> problem, a few pushed out while removing the old pins. I've never
re-bushed
> flanges before, so out with the Reblitz and Schaff catalog. Got my
supplies,
> and following Reblitz's directions, I could not get the cloth to meet in
the
> hole. Once, twice, three, four or more times I could not get this bushing
> cloth to lay in the hole gapless. So I got to measuring and calculating
and
> here's what I came up with.
> Flange Bushing drill = 7/64ths diameter. This calculates out to a hole
that
> would be 11/32nds in circumference.
> Flange Bushing cloth advertised as 17/64th's. That's 5/64th's less than
> needed already. The actual cloth I got out of a dozen strips was 8 strips
of
> 7/32nds and 4 strips was 1/4 inch wide.
> Now, am I missing something here? Am I using the wrong size drill to ream
> the old bushings out? Is there a suitable alternative to "flange bushing
> cloth", other than buying a whole yard of it and cutting myself. It would
> take me forever to use a yard of the stuff, not to mention the price it
> fairly steep just to have some on hand when the need arises.
> Thanks for your help.
>
> Benny L. Tucker
> Precision Piano Tuning & Repair
> Thomaston, Ga.
>
>
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