Paul, Attached are some pics of what I've been using most of the time. The pics are out of order and the one with the hinge installed is an after picture. The lid had apparently been dropped on the lid prop several times, forcing the prop "out" of the piano and thus stripping all the screws. When I found it, the lid prop was laying on the plate inside the piano. The other pic is just one from a sample repair in a plain piece of wood. I use my hand held hammer shank drill to drill out the stripped hole (you could use a regular bit and drill if you want). NOTE: I always....always use tape or something on my bit, not shown in the pic (I had taken the tape off after drilling the hole before I realized I needed it left on for the pic)...as a depth guage because the last thing you want to do is go through the lid to the front side, or something. That would ruin your day. Next, use an upright hammer shank and score a small glue relief down one side (I have a hole drilled in the end of my hand drill handle with a screw screwed in the side of the handle...just entering the hole in the handle, that I can push a hammer shank into, thus scoring about an inch of the side of the shank to serve as a glue relief). I then dry fit the hammer shank in the cleaned out hole, mark the depth and cut it with hammer shank cutters, and glue it in flush. Wait a minute, predrill it for the new screw and you're done. I've used this method for stripped pedal bracket screws on uprights, stripped screws holding case parts on, and a lid prop stick hinge on a grand piano. What's nice is I already have the hammer shank drill and hammer shanks as part of my repair kit, so it works nicely. To me, it doesn't take a whole lot longer than the toothpick thing, and the repair is much more permanent, in my opinion. I've used the shoepegs, sliver of wood, or toothpick on occaisions when the whole wasn't that bad, but most of the time, this is what I like to do, so long as it will be covered by the screw head, hinge, etc. as it does make a little larger hole. This type repair is really good for inside the piano where looks aren't as important if the screw or hardware doesn't cover it. I suppose you could do the same thing with smaller dowel, but something about the maple shanks I really like. Hope it helps. If not for this application, then maybe down the road somewhere. Richard W. Bushey Richard's Piano Service www.RichardsPianoService.com Rbushey at RichardsPianoService.com 573-765-9903 ----- Original Message ----- From: <paulmulik at yahoo.com> To: <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 7:16 AM Subject: [pianotech] Filling screw holes >A school that I tune for has a Kawai grand, and about a third of the little >screws from the long hinge (connecting the front lid to the main lid) have >fallen out. I've told them repeatedly that if they need to move the piano >around the room they must not push on the lid (I even left a note to the >lid warning against it), and of course they have ignored this advice. > > In the past I tried replacing them with slightly longer screws but those > have fallen out too. Obviously I need to fill the holes with something, I > guess using a syringe, but what? Epoxy? Wood filler? Thick CA? > > Thanks, > Paul Mulik > Sent from my U.S. Cellular BlackBerry® smartphone -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter. SPAMfighter has removed 1123 of my spam emails to date. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len Do you have a slow PC? Try a Free scan http://www.spamfighter.com/SLOW-PCfighter?cid=sigen -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 102_7314.JPG Type: image/jpeg Size: 483450 bytes Desc: not available URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20121221/beb87781/attachment-0004.jpeg> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 102_7603.JPG Type: image/jpeg Size: 579684 bytes Desc: not available URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20121221/beb87781/attachment-0005.jpeg> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 102_7332.JPG Type: image/jpeg Size: 716702 bytes Desc: not available URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20121221/beb87781/attachment-0006.jpeg> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 102_7321.JPG Type: image/jpeg Size: 1178153 bytes Desc: not available URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20121221/beb87781/attachment-0007.jpeg>
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