Hello all, I wanted to report on a Chickering rebuild that I had questions about in the early part of the summer. This 5' Quarter Grand had a double flange pinblock that was machined screwed to the plate. I had underestimated the amount of work I would need to do on the action, and was concerned about duplicating the block. I ended up epoxying the block with EPOTEK epoxy (water thin) and redrilling for size 4 pins. I am happy to report that the pinblock feels wonderful and I have the perfect feel! It is VERY consistent. Thanks to Dave Doremus and Ken Eschete for walking me through it my first time. I'll be doing an upright next. I also tried using the Scortino insta-coiler to restring the whole thing and it worked well. Most of the piano I was even able to point all beckets in the same direction. Nice, tight, consistent coils. I did have to do the lower half of the bass my old way because the handle of the tool hit the rim. I found that driving all pins in first (hole pointing at tail) and working left to right was the way to go. The tool seems very durable and shows absolutely NO wear. I was worried about that. Can anyone tell about using an impact hammer for restringing?? I've never used one. My arm was getting tired on this job (getting old?). I don't want to scratch my (what I consider) beautiful gild job. Lance Lafargue, RPT New Orleans Chapter Covington, LA. lafargue@iamerica.net
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