<html> Terry,    Screws through the board around the rim, and big flathead screws into the original bolt holes to act as jacks. Just reach through the bolt holes with a narrower flathead screwdriver and raise or lower the plate as needed. The screw heads can be then indexed to the rim for dowel height placement. Saves a bit on "fine tuning" the plate later. Fun-n-games, Guy At 11:05 AM 10/13/2004 -0400, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>I'd like to start a discussion on setting downbearing as part of rebuilding a piano - specifically, what methods of clamping the soundboard to the rim are used by those who plane their bridges for appropriate downbearing prior to gluing the soundboard to the rim.   Obviously one needs to have both the soundboard and the plate in the case to set downbearing (bridge height). The problem arises (at least for me) in the fact that the plate is in the way of easily/directly clamping the soundboard to the rim (such that bridge height relative to the plate will be accurately represented). I have used little wooden wedges placed between the plate bottom and the soundboard top in the past - and that seems to work - but I wonder if there is not a more efficient/easier/faster way to do this.   How do others approach this task?   Terry Farrell   <a href="http://www.farrellpiano.com">www.farrellpiano.com</a></blockquote></html>