<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <title></title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Tom My wife attended a key rebushing class at a convention and, of course, was eager to ply her new-found skill. The first piano to come into the shop after that was a hand-me-down old upright that needed everything, so I set her to work replacing the bushings. The front rail job was perfect but all of the balance rail bushings fell out. I tried soaking the mortises with acetone but no amount of cleaning seemed to cure the wood of repelling the hide glue. I suspect silicone was the culprit. Not her fault, of course, but that is one horse she won't get back on again. Silicone is forever. Tom Cole Tom Sivak wrote: <blockquote cite="mid882273.50606.qm@web83006.mail.mud.yahoo.com" type="cite"> <pre wrap="">List It isn't often that I can contribute anything that I think worthy of you all. Perhaps you all know about this VS Profelt stuff, but it's new to me and it has saved me two bushing jobs so far. I had a Kawai vertical that needed new balance rail key bushings, badly. Sharps especially rocked back and forth, big time. I removed the keys, applied VS Profelt to the bushings, inserted my Spurlock bushing cauls and let them set over night. Next day, the key bushings were perfect. There was not even any variation from one to the next. They were all perfect. I spoke with Bob at Pianotech and he said that it relaxes the felt and also contains silicone which lubricates the felt. He said he had a set of key bushings in which some were too tight, and some were too loose, and after an application of this stuff, they were all PERFECT. I also used VS Profelt on damper rail guide bushings on a M&H AA in which the dampers were bobbling side to side, forward to back, like little wooden jacks-in-the-box. I applied the liquid, put in number 8 bridge pins for a "caul", and the next day, voila! Like new. This stuff saved me hours of work. Not only are the results great, but I can now make improvements on some of my clients' pianos where money is an issue. I don't even bring up key bushing replacement on some pianos even if it needs it desperately. Now, I can suggest upgrading the key bushing situation at a more reasonable cost. Tom Sivak Chicago </pre> </blockquote> </body> </html>