Ben: How long is a "while"? I did a Steinway M with the hammer flanges verdigris problem. I numbered all shanks and flanges accordingly, removed all the flanges from the shanks, dipped all the flanges in acetone and cleaned off as much of the "green wax" as I could by wiping down with a terry-cloth hand towel-even pushing a center pin through the birdseye with the flat side first to push out the "gunk". Then I took a single-edge razor to all the surfaces of the hammer shank bushings and CAREFULLY removed as much of the "gunk" that I could, then dipping just that part of the shanks in acetone-JUST FAR ENOUGH TO WET THE BUSHINGS and while still wet pushed new center pins thru (1 size over and NOT attaching the flanges YET) I let these sit overnight and the next day before removing the centers from the shanks I took a 100 watt Weller soldering gun and just touched each center pin for a couple seconds or so and then removed the pin and re-assembled. It worked GREAT! Nice and tight but flange would drop with the weight of the flange screw. I told the customer that the problem will probably come back but I think this will last for at least a couple years or so maybe-enough to get them to save up for the REBUILD.... The previous "tooner" had tried to fix the problem by taking small clamp-on fishing weights attached to the end of the shanks butted up against the hammer mouldings, re-enforcing with a nice big blob of hot glue (the clear stuff for crafts and hobbies....) :-) I know this sounds like a lot of work but it only took about 4 or 5 hours total....try a few and see what ya think... Good Luck Greg Torres Tunapiana@adisfwb.com -----Original Message----- From: Benjamin Treuhaft <blt@igc.org> To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org> Cc: momsevywhr@juno.com <momsevywhr@juno.com> Date: Sunday, November 16, 1997 10:33 PM Subject: steinway verdegris is killing me > An 1890's Steinway upright action is sluggish due to verdegris. I >flooded all the centers with Renewsit, the stuff Franz Mohr used for >years to free seized centers. I massaged it in, sliding the center >pins back and forth. That worked for a while. > It came back. > Next, I wet all the centers with alcohol and water and hit the >action with heat from a hair dryer. That worked fine. > It came back. > Finally, I repinned dozens of centers, washing out the bushings >with Renewsit before and during reaming. It worked great. > It's back again. What shall I do? >Ben Treuhaft >Berkeley, Calif. >ps Next week I'm going to install a dampp-chaser and control unit. >
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