[pianotech] Familiarity - hinge pins

[Paul T Williams]

I lifted one once (and only once) to see the lid slide down the side and 
make a huge scratch. Nasty repair. fortunately, the piano was fairly ugly 
and the repair was similar, and the owner was just fine with it.  How I 
would hate to do that on a nice piano with a perfect finish.  Be sure to 
check before lifting.

Paul



From:
Thomas Cole <tcole at cruzio.com>
To:
pianotech at ptg.org
Date:
12/04/2010 01:37 PM
Subject:
Re: [pianotech] Familiarity - hinge pins



Thanks for the reminder, Keith. We do tend to take hinge pins for granted. 
I don't know which is worse - no hinge pins at all or the stage hand puts 
the one he or she has back in and figures the other(s) will turn up 
somewhere, sometime.

Tom Cole

On 12/4/10 9:53 AM, Mr. Mac's wrote: 
Dear List,

An incident happened today I felt worthy of sharing.

A harpsichord that I have tuned at a minimum of twice a year for easily 
30+ years was, once again, tuned by me again this morning for a special 
event.

Lo and behold, someone had removed all four (4) of the hinge pins. Never 
before has this ever happened.

Needless to say, I was quite surprised to watch AND listen (in somewhat 
anguish) the lid slide off the instrument into the conductor's stand ... 
into the platform ... onto the floor. The Fine Arts Secretary, who 
happened to be in the auditorium at the time says, "Are you okay?" To wit 
I replied, "Yes. Someone removed the hinge pins. Do you know where they 
are?"

"No" was her reply. Looking everywhere I could suspect they might be, they 
were nowhere to be found.

Moral:
Don't become familiar with your work. Check every single time before 
lifting a lid on any instrument to verify there are, in fact, hinge pins 
inserted in the hinges, and defer a similar experience.

Sincerely,

Keith McGavern, RPT


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