Steinway D water damage

[A440A at aol.com]

<< my worst fear is a crack in the pin block in the affected area, which if 
true, obviously needs to be repaired prior to re-stringing. <<  

      I cannot remember the last time I saw a cracked STeinway pinblock.  The 
holes get loose, and every now and then you will see a loose bit of the 
bottom of the lamination, but a crack?  Not often. 

>>we need to make sure the pin block is absolutely dry before condemning it.  
Then, I plan to remove the offending pins to (maybe?) permit further drying - 
and try replacing them with slightly larger (or at least inserting a sleeve) 
to see if I can get the piano to hold pitch on those spots. << 

I would advise against the sleeve, and why wait?  I would take the pins out, 
right now, and let it sit at least a week.  Then, depending on what a 3/0 pin 
feels like, I would probably swab the holes with very thin penetrating epoxy, 
let that set, and then restring with the best feeling pin.  

>>If all goes well, I can proceed with the string replacement and rust 
cleanup.  If not, I suppose we're looking at a pin block replacement. >>

Depends on how many band-aids you want to try.  If there are only three bad 
pins, I could see plugging the holes and redrilling them before a complete 
pin-block replacement.  Would the money be better spent on action work ? 
REgards, 
 
Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html