Balance rail hole repair

[BobDavis88 at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/1/2006 12:07:52 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com writes:
I think the argument is that basswood is too soft and the hole will enlarge 
prematurely, and that hard maple can be so hard as to produce noise. So when 
I have done this repair I have gone with a medium-hard hardwood - like 
poplar or mahogany. Maybe soft maple isn't too hard.
W also found the fiber inserts too hard - they develop noise. We use poplar.


I used the Spurlock method for this repair with moderate success. I think if 
I were a little more resourceful and came up with a better way to lock the 
keys fore-and-aft position in, I would have had complete success
We clamp the action frame down, then push the vertical face of a piece of 
aluminum angle back against the keyfronts. The lips of the white keys rest on the 
top edge of that face. The horizontal face rests on blocks which elevate it 
to approximate the height of the keys at rest. We push the keys all the way 
back, then put the aluminum thing very close to them, such that the keys can be 
pushed slightly forward and all bump the aluminum. This lines them up, to make 
up for the sloppy balance rail holes. 

Then we take one off one key at a time, put the little marking jig that Bill 
describes on the balance rail pin, and carefully lower the key back down onto 
the pin, so that it is positioned by the aluminum lip just before it touches 
down on the pins of the jig.

Incidentally, the little marking jig I made with a piece of scrap 1/8" metal, 
with a couple of bridge pin points silver-soldered in. The hole for the 
balance rail pin wallows after a set or so, but it is no trouble just to peen it 
back to a nice snug fit.

Bob Davis
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