[pianotech] Renotching-Repinning-Reusing Bridges in rebuild

William Monroe bill at a440piano.net
Thu Jan 21 07:38:19 MST 2010


On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 11:30 PM, Ron Nossaman <rnossaman at cox.net> wrote:

> William Monroe wrote:
>
>> Sure, each their own.  For the most part I guess it feels like trading one
>> task for another.  Epoxy size the hole and drill out, or dip the pin and
>> drive in?  Probably a wash for me.
>>
>
> Or drill deeper, and inject epoxy before inserting new pins.
>
>
> OK.


>
>  Yes, you really do need to wear gloves when driving in the pins and
>> shoe-shining the cap, but it's really a very localized process for me.
>>
>
> You do? Why?
>
>
I prefer not to have epoxy on my hands.  I'm sure others are more capable
than I at never getting epoxy anywhere other than the intended surface, but
I occasionally make a mistake.  In particular, epoxy does get on the panty
hose, which gets gripped and regripped many times throughout the process -
makes for sticky hands in my world.


>
>
>  As for stressing the pins, unless you really bear down on the pins, or sit
>> in one place, there is no danger of lateral stress or overheating.
>>
>
> If you drill the holes deep enough that the pins won't bottom out, there's
> no need to stress or overheat anything. Just drive the pins to finish height
> and walk. There's no acoustically magic reason to bottom pins in the holes
> (and they won't stay there anyway), and finger knuckles like round top pins
> a whole lot more than filed or ground edges.
>
>
True.  Some prefer the look of filed pins.  I don't bottom them out for
acoustic magic or any other mythological misappropriations, just out of
preference.  I have more luck keeping my knuckles off filed pins than epoxy
off knuckles, I guess.

>
>
>  Certainly nothing approaching what the strings themselves do, I would
>> think.
>>
>
> This would be the lateral stress, and correct. Heat, not, obviously.
>
>
Not quite sure what this meant.......


>  I've heard the arguments, and I think it's a reasonable concern, but as
>> with most things in this biz, if you use appropriate care with this process,
>> there is no cause for concern.
>>
>
> Ah, but why? When it's just as easy to drill the holes deep enough that the
> pins won't bottom out, so you can drive them to final height initially,
> would anyone worry about the potential detriments of filing or grinding the
> tops?
> Ron N
>

Again, aesthetic.  Some like filed pins, some don't.  Sometimes it's
expected, too.  There's no acoustically magic reason to not file pins
either, so it becomes a choice in aesthetics, not function.  I've done it
both ways, and don't really have a preference, but some of my clients do.
Lacking any real evidence supporting the idea that judicious filing of
bridge pin tops damages the system, I see no reason not to utilize either
method to achieve a particular finished appearance.

-- 
William R. Monroe
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