<font color='navy' size='2' face='Comic Sans MS, sans-serif'><font color="#000080" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif" size="2">Ron ...</font><font color="#000080" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif">understood</font> <div><font color="#000080" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif" size="2">  But for the record. Modesto is only 200,000. & 1/2 million in </font><font color="#000080" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif">Stanislaus</font><font color="#000080" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif" size="2"> county. A very big spread out county.</font></div> <div style="color: navy; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> I am 100 miles from the 5 million plus folks you refer to in the people republic of the greater bay area.  The work that comes here doesn't fall out of the sky by any stretch. </div> <div style="color: navy; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">25 years of intentional marketing, taking everything that comes my way, making people happy.... is what bring work to our shop. SO it ain't as easy as it sounds. I'm 59 yrs young and a bit tired but still enjoying the work.</div> <div><font color="#000080" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif" size="2">I'm </font><font color="#000080" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif">just</font><font color="#000080" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif" size="2"> saying</font></div> <div style="color: navy; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Dale</div> <div style="color: navy; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">ps this is my 40 th year in the trenches. who hooo!</div> <div style="color: navy; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br> <br> <div style="clear:both"><font size="1" color="royalblue"><b><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, Serif"><font color="black"><font color="mediumblue" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif">Dale Erwin R.P.T.<br> <font color="green">Erwin's Piano Restoration Inc.</font><br> </font></font></font></b></font><font color="darkgreen"><span style="font-style: italic;"><b><font size="1"><font size="1" color="black"><font color="blueviolet"><font color="black"> <font color="black" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif">Mason & Hamlin</font><font face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif">/Steinway/</font><font color="black" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif">U.S. pianos</font><font face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif"><br> </font></font></font></font><font size="1" color="cornflowerblue" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif">www.Erwinspiano.com</font><font size="1"><br> </font><font size="1" color="crimson" face="Comic Sans MS, sans-serif">Phone: 209-577-8397</font><br> <font color="darkgreen"></font></font></b></span></font><tt><tt><font color="darkgreen"><br>  </font><br>   <font size="2"></font></tt></tt><br> <br> </div> <br> <br> <div style="font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black">-----Original Message-----<br> From: Ron Nossaman <rnossaman@cox.net><br> To: pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org><br> Sent: Thu, Dec 6, 2012 9:06 pm<br> Subject: Re: [pianotech] Key recovering-was wagner planner<br> <br> <div id="AOLMsgPart_0_2715e6fa-daa4-406f-ab3a-af5ba84e4ccd" style="margin: 0px;font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif;font-size: 12px;color: #000;background-color: #fff;"> <pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><tt> Paul, Dale, A considerable number of us don't live in an area where we can make $600 servicing three pianos in a day. That means we can spend a half day doing a set of keytops and pay for time, where we can't get the price to send them out and still make anything. A good machine setup helps a bunch. I have an old Oslund machine set that simplifies and speeds things up considerably, but I used a set of table table saw jigs prior to that which worked fairly well, if a whole lot scarier. As I've pointed out before, having five million people within an hour's drive of you makes for a significant difference in attitude and pricing. I don't like doing them either, BTW, but I do. Ron N </tt></pre> </div>  </div> </div> </font>