On a several restring jobs on older pianos of lower quality (budget refurbish/rebuilds), I have used new copper bridge pins that were the same size as the originals - and of course, some went into their respective holes loose. I set the pins in unthickened West System epoxy with excellent results - really cleaned up false beats, etc (also planed & renotched caps). Note that I am not suggesting I think this is a good course of action on a better piano where the owner is willing to pay for premium work. On new bridges I use horizontally-laminated hard-maple caps. I drill for new coppered bridge pins in the normal manner, but I swab the holes with unthickened West System epoxy and dip the pin in epoxy upon installation. Overkill? Maybe, but I don't want my bridges & bridge pins suffering the same fate I see in most pianos after a few decades - or maybe just years (cracked caps and loose pins). Does it hurt anything? I don't think so - except perhaps my sort-term profit margin. Terry Farrell > Hi Dale, > > >Although i don not do this job frequently occasionally I find it > >advantageous to pull bridge pins in an existing bridge,renotch & > >then put in new pins. > > Likewise. > > > However as many of you may know from doing this that most recently > >the current copper supply of bridge pins are just slightly smaller > >than the most originals which obviously does not help with getting a > >tight fit. > > This can be a problem. We've made our own pins to the required size > by getting silver steel centreless ground to the oversize diameter we > require, then cutting the pins from the ground lengths of silver > steel. But its a slow and costly process. Renner supplies bridge pins > in several graduated diameters, but these pins do not have a very > high standard of finish. We've been using them to date, but I'm > looking for a better quality pin. > > Ron O. > -- > OVERS PIANOS - SYDNEY > Grand Piano Manufacturers > _______________________ > > Web http://overspianos.com.au > mailto:info@overspianos.com.au > _______________________ > _______________________________________________ > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives >
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