Glad to hear things worked out for you. Pianotek (I think) sells a handy little reamer that is specifically designed to evenly shave off brass from the bottom of the main body of the agraffe. It works well. Terry Farrell > That 1927 Steinway agraffe repair came off with hardly a hitch. The new > agraffe from Schaff had that conical undercut. Even so, I could not turn > it far enough after first contact for proper alignment. And a 10-mil shim > washer produced about the same misalignment, only a half-turn earlier. > Instead what I did was this. I wrapped the threads with a bit of paper to > protect them and then very lightly stroked the seating surface of the > agraffe with a fine-toothed machinist’s file. I rotated the agraffe so as > to take off material evenly around the seat. The first try was perfect. > It delayed first contact by about 90 degrees, which made proper alignment > reachable with a very snug fit. > > And yes, Joe, I did loose one becket, but the old strings went in and are > up to pitch. I think it helped that I never completely straightened out > the wire ends when I removed the strings. I enlarged the coils just > enough to allow the wire to slip out of the agraffe hole. You can twist a > surprisingly small coil through an agraffe if you’re careful. > > Robert Scott > Ypsilanti, Michigan
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