Ron: Thanks! I had drilled 1/16" pilot holes down from above as I don't trust myself to be able to drill from underneath and actually find the bridge. I enlarged that hole from above and put the weight on and it makes a very nice difference! I was just kind of reluctant to put too big a hole in the bridge cap but it really doesn't look bad and if I feel like it later I might plug it and put some Dag on it. dave David M. Porritt dporritt at smu.edu -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Ron Nossaman Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 7:15 AM To: Pianotech List Subject: Mass loading - Re: Hail and fare well, was Re: Bridge Pins & NegaBearing > I was working on an "L" here with a bad section in the "killer octave" > that I wanted to help. I used vice grips to find where I'd like to put > some weight and they really helped. Unfortunately, where the weights > need to go I can't get a drill because of the keybed extension and > crossblock. > > Any bright ideas??? > > dave Dave, Nothing terribly elegant, but it's doable. The two problems are locating a hole from underneath that hits the bridge, and then being able to reach it to drive a screw. Locating the hole is easiest done by drilling down through the bridge from above, carefully avoiding ribs as well as you can. If you can then reach it from underneath with an offset or ratchet screwdriver, you're there. If not, a 12" aircraft drill can be used from above to drill a guide hole clear through the belly rail and keybed, or beam. This hole can then be enlarged as necessary from underneath to accommodate a long screwdriver. The small hole in the bridge cap is of little consequence as a trade off for making a killer octave more tolerable. The holes in the keybed and beams are of no consequence at all. At least, that's what I'd do. Alternately, you can eyeball drill from underneath, aiming at a spot on the soundboard between ribs, using the dowels as a guide, and hope you come close to hitting the spot after going through the beam or keybed, and that the dowels are reasonably centered on the bridge. This is doable too, if a little scarier. Ron N
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