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<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>When we are talking bridge repair, I assume that
we are talking the main bridge, and not the bass bridge?</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>I have always removed the bass bridge, and
remanufactured.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV>John M. Ross<BR>Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada<BR><A
href="mailto:jrpiano@win.eastlink.ca">jrpiano@win.eastlink.ca</A></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=jonpage@comcast.net href="mailto:jonpage@comcast.net">Jon Page</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> Monday, August 13, 2007 10:45
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Bass Bridge Epoxy Repair</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=-4> 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.<BR><BR> 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.<BR><BR> 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.<BR><BR> 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.<BR><BR> Came back a few
days later (today), put strings back on, pulled up to pitch, tuned
piano.<BR><BR> 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.<BR><BR> 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><X-SIGSEP><PRE>--
</PRE></X-SIGSEP>
<DIV><BR>Regards,<BR><BR>Jon Page</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>