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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>We had a recent thread on repairing cracked bass
bridges with epoxy. The question was raised on how much time a repair might
take. I just completed a repair today on an old Acrosonic bass
bridge.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>About five notes were affected - the treble-most
notes on the bass bridge. Upon starting to tune the piano (she tunes every six
years whether the piano needs it or not), I noticed the upper bass was way flat.
Checked it with my Verituner and saw that the top five notes were about 30 cents
flat. Looked at the bridge and saw that the speaking side bridge pins on those
notes were standing up straight and a crack ran right through all the speaking
pins on the top five notes. You could see that the strings had straightened out
and that the cap had moved a bit.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I removed the affected strings and the cap came
right off and the pins were easy to remove. I spent about a half hour that first
day.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I came back a week later with my box of West System
epoxy, their slow hardener and their High Strength/Density filler. I wet all
wood mating surfaces with unthickened epoxy, then mixed in the filler to a
peanut-butter consistency and applied that to all surfaces. Mooshed the cap
piece in place and scraped off squeeze out. Pushed bridge pins back in with
pliers. Cleaned up squeeze-out. Put a couple spring clamps on to keep all in
place.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Came back a few days later (today), put strings
back on, pulled up to pitch, tuned piano.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>My on-site hourly fee is $60/hr. and I charged her
$200 for the bridge repair (that included a $20 flat epoxy fee). So I guess I
put a total of three hours into the repair (that included a half hour in my shop
prepping (putting together a box of epoxy supplies, etc.). Plus tuning of course
- so the total was $295.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I though this was about the easiest and most
straight-forward bridge repair I have ever done - usually they present some
additional challenge.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hope this helps someone.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Terry Farrell<BR>Farrell Piano</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.farrellpiano.com">www.farrellpiano.com</A><BR><A
href="mailto:terry@farrellpiano.com">terry@farrellpiano.com</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>