PSO,POS

[Doug Richards]

Leslie,
I don't have much to offer on the business aspects, but have done the
superglue thing.

My adventure into using CA to tighten pins was somewhat of a draw.
You may recall I had an incident a few months ago when applying CA to
pins and some leaked (or flooded) under the plate, around the pinblock
and onto my pant leg......

I had little to lose on the piano since most pins were very loose.  Most
of the pins had already been doped and carried the classic drip marks of
a really sloppy job.  I used about 2oz of thin CA in only one
application on all pins.  Good ventilation is required, along with
tilting the piano, a few flood lights to get rid of shadows, and a micro
applicator tip.

In the end most pins improved from barely holding to decent torque.  It
was not near consistent enough torque to be pleased with the overall
results, since quite a few still were very low.  In general I would say
that if repining is not an option and the customer really wants to spend
the $ to keep the piano in tune...

I would be interested to hear of other methods and results.  How many
applications is normal?

doug richards
San Jose,CA


 -----Original Message-----
> From:	lesbart@juno.com [SMTP:lesbart@juno.com]
> Sent:	Thursday, April 16, 1998 6:12 PM
> To:	pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject:	PSO,POS
> 
> List	
> 	I received a call sometime ago about a "piano" offered free to a
> local school for which I tune.  After describing it as very old, but
> very
> "nice", I suggested they didn't want it.	
> 	Earlier this week I got a call saying they had accepted the
> donation and wanted me to tune it.  I looked at it on my way to
> another
> appoinment, saying I'd be back today to try to tune it. It had a
> missing
> hammer, about 30 hammers that needed repinning, plus the other normal
> stuff that comes with age (can't give a date on this Baldwin Howard as
> the serial number had been defaced and was unreadable).
> 	When I did the 100 cent pitch raise,  there were at least a
> dozen
> strings that likely wouldn't hold, and most of the rest were marginal.
> I
> said to the teachers, "Please don't spend good money on this piano.
> Everything here can be sort of fixed, but it would cost much more than
> the piano is worth."
> 
> 	Regarding supergluing pins, how does one estimate charges for
> such a service?  I always tend to charge way too little.
> 	Second, at what point to you decide "it just isn't worth dealing
> with"?
> 
> Thanks for your consideration.
> 
> Leslie
> 
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