Steinway Aggraffe

[David Ilvedson]

A small screwdriver  with a notch filed in the middle so it looks like an M and a vice -grip clamped onto it.    Tapping  and turning counter-clockwise will usually get it right out.   I haven't used a drill/EZ out in a long time.

David Ilvedson



----- Original message ---------------------------------------->
From: Susan Kline <skline@peak.org>
To: College and University Technicians <caut@ptg.org>
Received: Thu, 10 Jun 2004 07:25:20 -0700
Subject: Re: Steinway Aggraffe

>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


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