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MMD > Archives > April 1999 > 1999.04.29 > 08Prev  Next


Tight Tuning Pins
By Craig Brougher

Bruce Clark was worried about overly tight pins.  This can sometimes
happen, particularly when a new pin plank is drilled and then left for
a month or two before stringing.

Another problem can be drilling with an undersized drill bit.  The
danger can be to twist off the pins themselves.  They will break at
the beckets.

I don't recommend waiting a few months, because if the pin was seized,
it will just get tighter until you do break a pin, given more months of
waiting.  I would first try to break the pins loose by detuning.  Once
I get them moving again, I would twist back and forth that pin to
polish its hole a bit, first.  Get it moving before it seizes up and
you break it.

If you find a pin that is so tight it is just torqueing but not turning,
it is best to unstring it and heat it up with a micro-torch or
something, <gently> of course, until you notice that it can rotate.

Don't heat a pin with the string still on it.  This takes a lot of
time, but extracting a broken pin takes ten times more time.  That is
a miserable job.

Another solution -- and of course Bruce has a problem with this --
but Pin Tite works great on overly tight pins, too.  And, it's a
permanent solution.  (chuckle).

If pin-driving fluid was used to string the piano, then it is possible
that this fluid has to dry first.  That causes pins to pop until things
are thoroughly dry.  In which case, the restringer is right.  A few
months time, and everything should be back to normal.

Craig Brougher


(Message sent Thu 29 Apr 1999, 13:48:27 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.)

Key Words in Subject:  Pins, Tight, Tuning

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