Wim, I would offer one other consideration, depending upon your current "shop" situation - Ruth will probably talk about this too. Don't be bashful about requiring some of these repairs to come to your shop. Stick compounds, paste compounds - they both make one mell of a hess. Once you explain this to your clients, they (the thoughtful ones) will see the intelligence of sending it to you. Of course I'm not talking about little spots, but for anything that requires a power wheel or pad, you'll either want it (well, maybe "want" isn't the right word ;-] ) in your shop, or you'll want to invest in some very large painters tarps as it will get everything in the room dusty/nasty. There is a small pad system that Ruth sells (I think it's called Roloc) and it is a pad system for a handheld drill - works pretty nice with pastes on small areas - still makes a mess but is reasonably controllable. Also, as with so many other things we do, improvisation is helpful. Results are what matter, and if you have to take a diversion from standard protocols to get there.............well, OK. ;-] Enjoy the process. William R. Monroe On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 2:09 AM, pmc033 at earthlink.net <pmc033 at earthlink.net>wrote: > Hi, Wim: > You have the winning attitude. Just take it a step at a time. You'll > do fine. I've taught a few guys how to do this, and my motto is, "Let them > make some mistakes. They'll be better for it". Sometimes, I catch myself > insisting that "my way is better". I've often found that other people can > make success with a method that didn't work for me. If you get stuck, you > can always ask for suggestions. > Years ago I went to the L.A. headquarters of Samick Music Corp. to > learn how they do polyester repair. I spent the day there, and they showed > me their methods and equipment. Since that facility was doing that work > full time, they had some very heavy duty machines. Depending upon how much > work you anticipate, you may not need so much. Since I work at a store, and > often have this repair to do, I purchased similar machines to Samick's. > Basically a hand-held straight grinder. It is too fast, so I use a Variac > transformer to lower the voltage and speed. It is an edge buffer, so I use > buffing sticks instead of paste or liquid compounds. You can get all the > hardware to convert an automotive swirl buffer to an edge buffing wheel from > suppliers. Or you can use a bonnet like is used on autos. 3M has > hook-n-loop buffing pads which use liquid compounds to accomplish the same > thing. I don't like them because they throw the compound around on > everything in sight. You will probably will be doing this on sales floors > and in homes, so splashing compound around the room is not cool. Well, of > course, compound dust isn't so good either. You can get most materials from > a local plastic store if you have one nearby. Poly is nothing but plastic, > so anything that works on plastic will work well on poly. > The kit you'll get from Ruth will have everything you need to get > started, but you will want to invest in a buffing machine to be able to buff > a large area like a lid or table. There's nothing like pulling out Big > Bertha to power through all those scratches. I've found that, with the > right compound, I can make most scratches go away easily without too much > effort. I try to avoid sanding if I can help it. > The real trick is evaluating the repair before you begin. If you can > catch your fingernail on the scratch, you'll have to sand it out first. If > you can't feel it, you can use a buffer to take it out. Don't make more > work for yourself by sanding something that a buffing wheel could remove, > because you'll have to buff out the fine scratches left by the sandpaper > anyway. > There's a lot more I could write, but I'll let you get your feet wet > first. > > If you ever get the movie rights, I'll be first in line at the box > office. You do have good talent for writing. > > Good luck. > Paul McCloud > San Diego > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090403/87af626e/attachment-0001.html>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC