The metal tuning pin insert shims.

[Keith A. McGavern]

Part of Steve Haasch's post:
>        When one encounters a piano which has had loose tuning pins and
>someone has doped the holes to swell the wood, and the applications seem to
>be loosing its effect...would an alternative and reasonable fix be to insert
>the metal inserts into the tuning pin hole and then reinsert the tuning pin
>or one of one size smaller?

Steve,
The approach you mention might work okay.  Another option is to use the
next larger size tuning pin from the one currently in question without
using any inserts.  There are never any hard and fast rules when a piano is
no longer in its virgin state of being.

Keith A. McGavern, RPT
kam544@ionet.net
Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee