The Frame Game (again)

[Ron Nossaman]

> See picture. This is a 1916 Willard player (rebuilt) that is in pretty 
> good shape except it turned out to have a block separating from the back 
> frame. Rats. I know some will counsel to fall back 10 yards and punt, 
> but this is really not a walk-away situation. By the way, the fold-back 
> case lid was removed with a 2 1/2 sledge "cushioned" by a block of 
> pinblock material (top plate of my pinblock support tool); brutal but 
> effective, thanks Ron Nossman.

You're welcome, but I'm not sure it will have done you much 
good in this case (pun notwithstanding). The beam is a piano 
"tallerizer" that makes a smaller piano into a larger one by 
adding altitude to the lid. It's either to justify a higher 
price, or to make room in the case for the air motor and 
spoolbox of a player. Maybe both. Universal, Marantz, Aeolian, 
and plenty of others I'm not thinking of at the moment did it, 
though they typically didn't waste wood by filling the gap 
between the top of the pinblock and the bottom of the lid. 
What you really need a look at is what's under that beam, 
which will require some dissection (demolition). I'd probably 
want the string tension down for that one. Alternately, you 
could drill through lower on the plate, and put bolts through 
the real pinblock and back posts to suck the thing back 
together, and issue written disclaimers. While the hardware in 
these repairs is what is realistically doing the work, rather 
than the glue, I'd still prefer getting glue in there in 
places that it might actually help. The "S" labeled areas in 
the photo are likely filler blocks that are no longer glued to 
anything but the "tallerizer", and rotated up with it. Getting 
a look at it, and getting glue to it will require disassembly.

My call is, I'd want to take it apart further to SEE the 
mistakes I was making.
Ron N