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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Terry,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thanks for the detailed description of this
job. One question though, did you lay the piano on its back with a piano
tilter?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>David Weiss</FONT></DIV>
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style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com
href="mailto:mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com">Farrell</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, August 12, 2007 5:34
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Bass Bridge Epoxy Repair</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<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></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>