<font color='black' size='2' face='Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif'> <div>David</div> <div> </div> <div>If these plastic parts are anything like the ones we had in America, the flange are swelling, and in the not to distant future, they will start breaking. You can try reaming out the bushing, but you might want to suggest to the customer that the only long term solution is to replace all the plastic parts.</div> <div> </div> <div>Wim</div> <div> </div> <div>PS. I'm surprised you haven't cracked the flanges yet, just trying to get them off the rail.  <br> <br> </div> <div style="CLEAR: both"> <div> </div> </div> <br> <br> <div style="FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">-----Original Message-----<br> From: David Boyce <David@piano.plus.com><br> To: pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org><br> Sent: Sat, Nov 26, 2011 10:01 am<br> Subject: [pianotech] Tight plastic flanges<br> <br> <div id=AOLMsgPart_2_a7a1eaa6-3ef8-40bb-ba2d-9dae3b72a754><FONT face=Arial>Centres have become tight on the little Neindorf piano i tuned for a customer today.  <br> <br> It's a late 60s or early 70s piano with a "Pianic" action, and when I took out a hammer and the wippen/jack assembly for one note to check which centres were tight, happily the date was printed on that particular hammer, June 1969.  Jack centres are fine, but hammer flanges and wippen flanges tight.<br> <br> Since the flanges are plastic, what would be the more likely cause - swelling of the plastic flanges with age, or swelling of the centre pins? Would it be fair to assume that it's more likely to be the plastic flanges, since the jack centres were OK, and they are pinned the other way, with the bushed hole in the wood, not the plastic?<br> <br> Use of Protek CLP helped, making the action much less sluggish, and, basically, acceptable to play.  But it hasn't of itself gotten the centres as free as they should be.<br> <br> Best regards,<br> <br> David.<br> </FONT></div> <br> </div> </font>