<HTML>In a message dated 6/20/01 5:35:26 PM Central Daylight Time, piano.tech@ns.sympatico.ca writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">I personally, have never used them, after my first try with them 25 years ago. I threw the ones I had away, as I was unsatisfied with the result, I found that with the metal to metal they would not hold. Are they still a recommended fix for loose tuning pins? Has anyone actually, used them and been satisfied with the results? Did I possibly use them the wrong way, and have been unjust in my condemnation of them? Regards, John M. Ross </BLOCKQUOTE> I have never used them, but I have seen them in lots of pianos. My experience is that they were used by someone who didn't know how to use them, or used them because they didn't' enough to recognize that they were at most a stop gap solution for a cracked pin block. Some of the time the "tech" pounded the new pin in, but forgot to shore up the pin block. As a result, not only did the pin block delimitate more, the sleeves were drivin intop the top rail of the action. This, of course, made removing the action a bit of a challenge. I would not recommend using them. If the piano has a cracked pin block, convince the customer it has to be replaced. If she can't afford that, use larger tuning pins, but warn the customer what is going on, so that she knows you didn't fix the problem permanently. Willem. </HTML>