Steinway Aggraffe

[Susan Kline]

At 09:19 AM 6/10/2004 -0400, you wrote:

><< I've got an out of town customer who has called about a broken giraffe
>
>on a 1980 Steinway M. Does anyone know what size that might be? I hate
>
>to make the drive and show up with the wrong stuff. >>
>
>Hi Liz,
>    That should be the 1/4" thread.  Don't forget your washers, drill slow 
> and
>straight, and don't force the EZ-out!!
>Ed

The three times I've had to get out a broken agraffe, I've not had to
resort to the easy-out. Tapping gingerly around the edges, urging the
stub to rotate in a counter-clockwise direction has always got it
turning for me. Once I used the corner of a small cold chisel, and the
other two times I used the end of an ice pick to grab at irregularities
in the stub (near the edge) and get it rotating. I held the ice pick
at a low angle, below 45 degrees. Once the stub is turning,
you're home free.

I admit that the next time I may not be so lucky, but I do suggest at
least trying to get the thing to turn out before reaching for the drill
and EZ-out. My feeling is that the drill spreads the brass into the
threads, while they don't start out particularly seized up before
drilling. The strain is at the place where the agraffe broke, in
a lateral direction, and once it's broken, of course any
strain down where the threads are is relieved.

Oh, and bring some nice hay and alfalfa for the giraffe. It must be
getting pretty hungry by now.

<grin> I once gave spell-check its head while writing a little piece,
and the hilarity was worth the waste of time.

Susan Kline