[pianotech] Agraffes -- Mason & Hamlin BB

David Love davidlovepianos at comcast.net
Wed Mar 4 13:38:50 PST 2009


It's an odd size and you won't find it anywhere.  Reconditioning the old
ones is quite doable and Paul Revenko-Jones article on such a procedure that
appeared in the PTJ awhile back is very useful and detailed.  Pianotek also
sells a universal agraffe replacement kit that involves fitting an insert
into the plate that the 1/4" agraffe will screw into.  The correctly sized
drill and tap are also part of the kit.  You might ask them about that.  It
is fairly easy to do and though it does take a bit of time I'm not sure it's
more involved than reconditioning the old ones.  

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Nick Gravagne
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 1:08 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] Agraffes -- Mason & Hamlin BB

Hello All,

Agraffes recently removed from a Boston M&H BB (#35000 circa 1927) are
dimensioned at 0.280" stud (includes threads), and near as I can tell the
TPI is metric at 0.75 but I don't take this to be accurate. Still, I
couldn't get the gage's 32 or 36 TPI to line up right with the threads. 

The standard 1/4" stud just falls in the hole. 

A prior tech removed the originals and "cleaned" them up by sand blasting,
or so it seems by the slightly pitted appearance; otherwise nothing is bent
or weird looking. The string holes have not been touched or redressed.

Pianotek does not offer this size (that I can see from the catalog), neither
does Schaff. The idea of plugging and re-tapping for standard agraffes is,
of course, possible but relatively time consuming, and there is no room for
error. 

Anyone replaced these recently, and if so with what? Any reconditioning
anecdotes worth sharing?  

Thanks

Nick Gravagne, RPT
Piano Technicians Guild
Member Society Manufacturing Engineers
Voice Mail 928-476-4143
 





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