Bechstein Pinblock

[Bill Ballard]

At 7:24 PM -0500 1/29/04, david thomson wrote:
>Thanks for the suggestions, Bill.  I've never heard of an over-arm 
>router.  DO you
>have more info on that?

This is what one looks like. 
http://www.amazon.com/o/dt/assoc/handle-buy-box=B0000E3HPA. As you 
can see it's not a casual piece of machinery, more like the 
Bridgeport miller for woodworking. Chris Robinson found one 
second-hand about twenty years ago whose head was mounted on a 
horizontal steel column, like a radial arm drill press. They're 
capable of complex set-ups, big muscle when it comes to stock 
removal, and extreme accuracy.

Back nearly thirty years ago, I had the local machine shop make me up 
the band of sheet steel to wrap around the body of my 1/4" router, 
with lugs welded to it to fit right into the yoke of my radial arm 
saw, and exact swap of the saw motor for the router. That's the poor 
man's version. Sometimes it's better to have the machine and the bit 
on top where it's visible, instead of underneath, as in a router 
table.

>But this step at the plate flange is what's
>troubling me.  It's not square, it's on an angle downward which is 
>akward.  I get
>the Journal but I think the article you are refering to was back in 
>'97 (?) which
>predates my subscription.

So are you talking about a portion of the top surface which inclines 
24º from level, or the front face which itself is split into two 
steps, like a Chickering Quarter grand block?

John Hartman is probably your best source of advice, although 
undoubtedly there are others on the list who've done this style 
block. I was just worried as to whether a hand held router might not 
be up to the amounts of stock removal you might have ahead of you.

BTW, Barbara Richmond suggested to me that among your current shop 
projects, might be wrapping up the work of the late David Moore. In 
3/86, when I was just a few days shy of a pay point on a rebuilding, 
and damaged my right eye, I was humbled by the number of fellow 
Chapter members who stepped in to do shop work and local tuning for 
me, to keep me going during the ten weeks I was out of commission. 
Good on ya'.

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

"May you work on interesting pianos."
     ...........Ancient Chinese