> I wish to upgrade the quality of my restorations by installing new > hitch pins (frankly strictly for cosmetic reasons). Perhaps some of you > are doing this already. More power to you. > My first question of one of removal of the original pins. Getting the > ones out that serve the long bridge from the backside of the plate via a > drift punch and hammer seems straightforward enough. The problem arises > on Steinway (and other) plates, however, where the hitch pins for the > bass section do not protrude through the casting. These can not be > driven out from the back. How can they be easily/successfully removed? > > David G. Hughes, RPT If there's a way to pull them effectively, I haven't found it yet. If you do, let me know, will you? There is this though, and it does work. Make a rubbing of the bass hitches, and poke through the paper at each hitch. Try your impact puller on pins until you get a couple to come out, preferably one at each end. Drill these holes through, flip the plate over, locate the upside down pattern on the holes, mark the other hole locations, and drill slightly larger holes down at the appropriate angle to intersect the blind holes. Locating the pattern on the through holes with long bits gives you a sight angle. Then punch them out. There's a ton of iron in most bass risers, so you aren't giving up anything important in strength, and there's not much breeze under there, so they won't whistle - and the mice won't tell. Ron N
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