Power Leather Nut Tool
By Larry Fisher
Hiya hiya,
At the risk of being unpopular, and popular at the same time, I'll include with this post a BMP file that shows the tool described below. This file can be viewed using the Windows 3.1 included software called Paintbrush (I'm not sure about Win95 or Mac users).
I recently had to deal with a full set of dual leather nuts on a player action that would have made my fingers raw for weeks had I not come up with this idea. I started removing the leather nuts with standard "slip jaw" pliers and found the old leather nuts mushy, self destructing, difficult to remove, and quite time consuming. I had to come up with a better method to speed things up a bit. That particular day, my grey matter was working quite well, and I brained this tool in just a matter of a few moments of time, well spent. I had a worn hex extender, the kind used with so many cordless screwdrivers these days. The end that accepts the various different tips and bits, was pretty well worn so that some times the bit would slip and become jammed inside the extender rendering it quite a bit less versitile. I managed to get the last bit out of it and set it aside wondering what I would do with it some day. This day came. I filled the worn end with automotive body putty/fiberglass resin and hardener/bondo. Before the putty set, I inserted two short pieces of very stout piano wire, the type you'd find in the bass string core for the lowest note on a grand piano. They were positioned so that they were directly across from each other at the very outer edge of the inside of the filled cavity. They were cut so they'd only protude by about a quarter inch (5 mm) or so. After the "bondo" hardened, I sharpened each prong to a sharp tip. I then drilled a very shallow spot in a piece of wood, so that the cup shape in the wood left by the tip of the drill bit was just large enough to accomodate a leather nut so that it wouldn't wander around on me as I stabbed it with this tool. The tool worked great for installing new ones powered by a cordless screwdriver as long as I stabbed them squarely across the center. It also removed the old ones quite easily and quickly as they already had numerous holes in them from a (I'd assume) previous and similar type of tool. The old ones came off in one piece, and could have been reused.
An additional usage for this tool showed up while I was doing my final tweaking and adjusting of the leather nuts. There wasn't room for my fingers and the new ones were too good looking to be mangleing with the above mentioned pliers, so I lightly stabbed them in the diameter, or outer circumference to facilitate spinning and adjusting them. The prongs really got a grip on the leather and didn't seem to show any signs of shredding or leave any marks behind.
In retrospect, I could have improved the tool with an additional prong or two, but that would have also increased the amount of pressure needed to get a good, controling, prong penetrating stab in the new leather nuts. The additional prongs would have made the positioning of the prongs on the new nuts less critical, hence the nut would have a lesser tendency to become tilted when applying pressure on a threaded post, rod, or lever as it's being turned on to it for the first time. The job moved along quite well as I'd position the nut in the shallow divot made by the drill bit in the wood, position the tool mounted in the cordless screwdriver, prongs properly positioned I'd whack the back/top of the tool and the prongs would penetrate and the nut would be stuck on firmly ready for installation to a new home for the next 80 years.
I could see where this tool would be really handy at a very crowded place, like during the xmas shopping season, or at outdoor music festivals, long lines at the bathroom, neighborhood disputes, dog training, neighborhood kid training, and it most likely would stirrup a quiet night at the Hoskins Hos Ranch with them hosses stampedin suddenly...... hmmmmm.
Lar
Larry Fisher RPT
specialist in players, retrofits, and other complicated stuff
phone 360-256-2999 or email larryf@pacifier.com
http://www.pacifier.com/~larryf/ (revised 10/96)
Beau Dahnker pianos work best under water
[ Editor's Note:
[
[ I've placed Larry's file on the FTP server. Most browsers
[ can display the image automatically:
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[ ftp://ftp.foxtail.com/pub/mechanical-music/misc/lthrnttl.bmp
[
[ (That name means "Leather Nut Tool")
[
[ Jody |
(Message sent Wed 16 Oct 1996, 15:24:34 GMT, from time zone GMT-0800.) |
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