----- Original Message ----- From: "John Ross" <jrpiano at win.eastlink.ca> To: <caut at ptg.org> Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 6:49 PM Subject: Re: [CAUT] monkey hanger > You don't pass any hardware stores on your way to work, or home. > I don't know how that would take much driving around. You don't always have time to stop. Even so, you're still investing your time in a particular repair. It's either costing you or you're passing it along to the customer. In this case, a recital was to happen later that afternoon, and access to the piano was limited. There was not time to go to a hardware store. I temporarily robbed another piano. > You should already have small cost tools like that. As someone else said, > the hangers on uprights are another use. No. They're not. Again, another repair one runs into once in a lifetime, and the one I last did probably 23 years ago was not soldered. I scored a nail, like a pedal pin, wedged it in the hole, and it worked perfectly. I actually have never had a need for a torch other than this, can't imagine another one, and the only use I have for a soldering iron is the 40 watt one with the hammer iron attachment. > I have a small clamp on vice as well. The university had a vice, but there wasn't a decent work bench to mount it on. Hence, holding the rod with one hand, the wire with another hand, the heat source my right foot, the solder with my teeth, etc., got a bit cumbersome. > Then again, I might have been at it longer than you, because, when I > started > I didn't have a lot of tools. I've been at it for 25 years. But my acquisition of tools has been limited due to the nature of the work I have done over the years. The majority of my time has been spent as a maintenance tech -- tuning, normal repair, and regulation. I consider this type of repair way out of the ordinary for piano work, and metal repair not something I have enough experience in to have any confidence in. About the only thing I do know about soldering is that you heat the part, not the solder. > Now I have too many, as I just 'think' I might need it. And the other thing is, you buy all these tools, and 15 years later when you next need it, you have no idea where you last laid it down. There are some repairs where you have to make a judgement call. I can "repair" it but the repair may not last, or I can replace it. We recommend replacing the hammer shank rather than splicing it for a reason. Not knowing what kind of solder to use, what kind of wire to replace the broken part with, I felt more confident in this particular situation in replacing the whole part. I really don't appreciate the smart aleck remarks inferring that I am somehow less of a piano technician because I didn't have confidence in my soldering skills in this one situation. Part of being a technician is making the right decision, and in this case, I still am confident it was. Tanner
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