west system in blocks

[A440A@aol.com]

Greetings,  
<< >I tuned a piano that had the tuning pin holes swabbed with epoxy. The 
pins 
>are very tight but they jump/snap like crazy making tuning a bit of a 
>head-ache. Seems like a last ditch repair. >>

I went ahead and treated the bass holes with CA glue.  I had dosed a number 
of pins in the upper section after finding that they were not tight enough to 
suit me.  The thin CA did help, giving an additional 20 or so in/lbs.  However, 
 in the bass, I put a newspaper under the block and dosed the holes with the 
CA before I strung.  I was using a nozzle to get below the top of the block, 
(I didn't want to really glue the plate to block!), and I used a liberal 
amount.  
     After 20 minutes or so, (it is humid around here, these days), I could 
no longer smell CA around the block, so I began.  I used 4/0 pins and it was 
dramatic how much tighter the pins were!  Most of these pins are around 125 
in/lbs.  So, it seems that there is much better results from treating the hole 
before the pin went in.  
    I take notes on my work, so I will be able to track the long term results 
of various means of application on this piano.  I would certainly have 
preferred to put in a new block, but that simply wasn't in the budget.  
Regards,
 
Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html