<html> <body> Horace, Thanks. I'll print this and Isaac's post so I'll have the information at hand. The dealer is pretty good at this kind of stuff, so he may well have it out by the time I get there. Avery At 01:14 AM 5/19/2006, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Hi, Avery, At 09:40 PM 5/18/2006, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""> <pre>List, A dealer I do some work for just called me and said they had a broken agraffe on a Steinway M from the 1940's. I have information about the usual ways to remove a broken agraffe when it's broken flush with the plate. My question is will the same method(s) work when it's broken down inside the hole? Any suggestions, cautions, etc.? In my 32 yrs. of doing this work, I've only had to replace one! </pre></blockquote> Isaac Sadigursky is the resident broken agraffe genius... In the meantime, in general, the same methods will work.  Rather more caution has to be taken to avoid bunging up the threads (duh).  I've often had better luck with a couple of drops of Break Free, or your favorite ballistics oil.  Sometimes drilling and tapping is the only way out, though. One thing I have done several times (and which may have been written up in the journal at some point or other) when things have been well and truly screwed up is to drill out the whole mess, then either make or have a machinist make a plug that is threaded on the outside for a standard thread and on the inside for an agraffe.  Drill out and then tap the hole where the broken agraffe was out to accept the outside thread of the custom insert, LocTite (or JB Weld) it in place (having checked to be sure that it fits/etc), then install a new agraffe and away you go.  As I write this, I think that this has been covered in more (and much better detail) on the list, as well.  There might be something in the archives. Best of luck! Horace <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""> <pre>Thanks. Avery Todd University of Houston </blockquote> </blockquote></body> </html>