<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2912" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV>I've seen that many times also.  I'm sure it's the result of a chemical reaction with the air or maybe with some polish or mothproofing that was put on at the factory or who knows what.  Sometimes dissimilar metals cause deposits to form, either from corrosion or electrolysis, but I'm not a chemist.  I doubt it's harmful dust, just sitting there, but I wouldn't breathe it in.    </DIV> <DIV>    --David Nereson, RPT</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left>-----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]On Behalf Of holly quigley Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 10:22 AM To: pianotech@ptg.org Subject: hello and ? re weird bright yellow fuzz on pressure bar </DIV> Hi everyone! Been an associate member for a while, I work as a tuner/technician full-time in GA... just usually too busy to keep up with the mailing list. Was actually once on here, but deleted my email account and can't find my old password - d'oh! Anyway, I just have a really quick question - I've searched the archives and even google, and no luck. For the second time now in the past month, I have come across a spinet (two separate ones in the past month), with a layer of this weird almost neon-yellowish-greenish fuzz/dust coating the pressure bars. The screws for the pressure bars are completely clean and untouched - it looks like it has to be either some weird chemical reaction, a fungus or mold (but on plain metal like that - ??) or Idunno - was there ever a time when pressure bars were coated in some kind of faux suede or something that would break down? It actually looks almost like school-issued yellow chalk coating them, but it's an even layer over the entire bar, and as I said, the screws have none of this stuff on them. I'm a little concerned because when you just barely touch this stuff the powder just showers right off of it. I didn't have a mask or gloves at the time, and I hope I don't have to worry about being exposed to some kind of poisonous chemical residue resulting from a reaction between the pressure bars and something in the air. The two pianos appeared to be different makes - the one today was a Mehler & Sons (I think - I might be screwing the name up), and the other was a Mendelssohn spinet, both about 30+ years old. Does this sound at all familiar to anyone? In this case, I'd be more than happy to wind up sounding like a complete newbie dolt who didn't recognize something completely harmless and common... Thanks in advance! -Holly Quigley </BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>