Update: Pinblock Epoxy Help

[Avery Todd]

Lists,

   Thanks very much to all of you who responded to my question. To make
the story a little shorter, it didn't work.
   Now the longer part of the story. Because the block was fairly new, and
I was assuming pretty crack free and the only reason the pins would be a
little loose was because of removing and reinstalling the same pins, I
decided to take a chance and experiment a little. I could always restring
with oversize pins.
   In the single string section, I put in the 5-minute epoxy and
immediately drove in the pins with strings attached. There was no evidence
that the little bit of water had gotten to this area at all. This ended up
being the worst section of all as far as holding is concerned. This area
wouldn't hold at all. It immediately went most of the way flat. One or two
in the upper part of this section weren't *quite* that bad.
   The next 6 unisons, I swabbed the holes with Hot Stuff CA glue. This
section held fairly well, although the pins were a little bit "snappy"
when being turned.
   The remainder of the bass, I applied epoxy again but waited an hour or
so for it to set up fairly well. Then I went ahead and restrung as usual.
This section was mixed. Some pins felt pretty good but there were 2-3
that wouldn't hold. They wouldn't go ALL the way down, but maybe a step
or so flat. The next day some were holding a little better but still not
nearly good enough. Most would probably have been knocked out of tune by
the move back to its home.
   Roger Jolly suggested a method for using the epoxy that might have
helped, but I had already done everything before I got his post. Thanks
for the idea, though. I may try it later. I already have a candidate in
mind. :-)
   So, the bottom line is that I removed all the pins, redrilled with a
bit for 3/0 tuning pins and restrung it again. Thanks Les. I should have
done that in the first place. :-)
   One interesting thing. Some of the (removed) pins had the epoxy all
the way at the bottom of the pin and some had it pretty well spread out
over the length of the pin. But as best I can remember now, the former
were the pins which were driven in with the epoxy still *wet* and the
remainder were not. So I guess in an area of the block where there was
probably no damage at all, this is to be expected. There was simply
nowhere for the epoxy to go but down.
   If I had had the time, I would like to have done a section with epoxy
and let it dry for 24 hours or so and then repin. Might have been
interesting.
   Maybe I'm wrong, but my conclusion in all this is that epoxy is *not*
the best loose pin fix for a block still in very good condition. At
least the 5-minute type. The CA seems to work better. In this particular
case though, the best way was to go to 3/0 pins. They feel great now, are
holding well and the piano has already pretty well settled down as far as
immediate stretch is concerned.
   Please pardon my rambling, but maybe this plus the posts I received,
will help someone else make a more informed decision when something
similar comes up in their work.

Avery








___________________________
Avery Todd, RPT
Moores School of Music
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-4893
713-743-3226
atodd@uh.edu
http://www.uh.edu/music/