<html> Hi Terry,              Drill straight down vertically, half the material coming from the post, half from the spacer. About three quarters way down the depth of the spacer.  Use PVC electrical tape to seal the bottom and sides of the spacer.    The dowel will lock the spacers in position.   The epoxy will gap fill, the space between the post and spacer.  Simple and neat.   Remember to do the bottom spacers while you are at it, for a complete rigid structure.   When rebuilding verticals it will make a big difference to sustain. We do the repair with the piano on it's back, so the drill is parallel to the floor.   It's hard to dam the spacer to post gap, at the rear.  It's almost an exercise in futility, bolting every thing together, if the spacers are loose. In most cases where there is block to back support separation, the spacers are also loose, for all the time it takes just dowel them. I thought every one did this way.  <G> Roger At 08:42 AM 9/8/02 -0400, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>You are just absolutely too amazing! Tell me if I am picturing this right: You drill a 1/2" hole (horizontal to the ground and perpendicular to the piano back) along the vertical joint line on the back of the piano between the post and the spacer? And then epoxy the dowel in the hole? I'm sure that would indeed firm the back right up! This is a VERY good idea for when you have the separated back on those short pianos where the entire tenor tuning pin field covers much of the upper section of the plate and you just can't put a bolt or lag through a post. I have through bolted through a spacer that was unsecured. Believe me, the spacer moves, not the plate! Terry Farrell   ----- Original Message ----- From: "jolly roger" <baldyam@sk.sympatico.ca> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Saturday, September 07, 2002 2:00 AM Subject: Re: separated pin block > At 09:53 PM 9/6/02 -0400, you wrote: > >Sounds like a good way to make this repair real neat. I have bent a couple > >BIG "C" clamps doing this repair. I have found pipe clamps to work better > >for me. But hey, that's just me!  ;-) > > > >Terry Farrell > Hi Terry , >                   I have 6 really heavy duty German made C clamps, with > lots of torque. > If  the lag screws go into spacer blocks I dowel the spacers to the back > post  with 1/2" maple dowel.   Run the dowel through the belt sander to put > a small flat down  it.  A liberal amount of epoxy down the hole. Insert the > dowel rod, twisting it as you go. This will allow a space to get the excess > epoxy to get out.  It will make the back support nice and solid. > Roger > </blockquote> </html>