Thank you all for your replies we shall seek some out. I am a sucker for off the shelf gadgets and toys to make life easier and |I also like the idea of making my own tools. I have a similar device for cleaning the glue of damper barrels which I made out of alliminium tube. Regards, Barrie. In article <199705061503.KAA26943@onyx.southwind.net>, Ron Nossaman <nossaman@southwind.net> writes >Hi all, > >In a pinch (needed one NOW), or if you need a smaller size than is commercially >available (had a rash of broken BRIDGE PINS in a church piano once, broke just >below the bridge surface), make what you need. > >Get a length of water harden, rather than oil harden, drill rod of the >appropriate diameter from an industrial supply. Cut off a two inch length, or >so, and save the rest for the next time. Square the ends up on a bench grinder, >and chuck it in a drill pr > >ess. Put a center drill in the drill press vise, set your speed to low, and >center drill both ends of the piece. If you've never done this, you are in for a >treat. Feed the work slowly down on the center drill with one hand, centering >the bit underneath b > >y feel. If you're careful, it will center nearly automatically. Exchange the >center drill with a jobber's bit of appropriate size, and drill clear through >the length. You might have to sneak up on it with multiple passes of >increasingly larger bits to rea > >ch the final size, depending on what the final size is. This material, although >unhardened, is pretty tough. > >Grind or file whatever you want for teeth, a Dremmel cutoff wheel is a "quick >and dirty" for this one. Harden it, or not, as you wish. Unhardened, it will get >you through a lot of holes with an occasional tooth sharpening. Hardened, the >teeth hold an edge > > better but you'll more probably break it and be making another one. Hardening >consists of heating to bright cherry and water quenching. Tempering afterward >(heating to straw color and quenching) makes it less brittle, but is a touchier >process. > >If you have the tools, it's worth the fifteen or twenty minutes if you need it >immediately, or are the pathologically independent type. <G> > > > Ron Nossaman > -- Barrie Heaton | Be Environmentally Friendly URL: http://www.airtime.co.uk/forte/piano.htm | To Your Neighbour The UK PIano Page | pgp key on request | HAVE YOUR PIANO TUNED
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