House cleaning, Kimballs, WD40

[NBWW]

List
I've been falling behind with you due to some family situations. At any rate
I'm cleaning house (shop) and have decided to let go of some "treasures".
Anyone interested in the folowing may contact me privately:
Chickering rosewood square-all original, needs rebuilding
Chickering Mahogany upright circa 1900-all original except white key tops,
needs rebuilding
Steinway Welte Mingnon (spelling) mahogany upright-player stripped rest
original, needs rebuilding.
A no name upright in an Arts and Crafts style (Stickley) case-unique- needs
rebuilding
 1 Schumann and 1 Bush & Gerts mahogany grands approx 4' 7" each,need
rebuilding

I'm looking for a couple of "hooks" for an M&H screw stringer- you know those
gizmos at the top you turn to tune the piano.  The customer asked me to
replace the broken and missing strings and 2 hooks are missing from the
treble. If you have a couple rolling around your misc. box please contact me.

A dealer in this area sold Kimballs by the truck load, literally! So, there
are many to work on.  For an inexpensive piano they do very well. I had the
opportunity to tour Kimall twice, and they seemed to be in tune with "good"
piano design and market price and appeal. The dealer had about 25 in stock all
the times. But ( and you knew this was coming) when a cold snap or heat wave
hit the area, the kimballs were the first to wander. This of course got the
salesmen nervous, and the pressure was on to "get um soundin' gooooood." A
week later another shift in the weather and the program started over again.
The trick for the dealer was to move them out asap so he didn"t have to pay
for all those floor tunings. They usually tuned nicely, with easy beats to
hear and managable pins to turn, and regulation was straight forward, usually
with just a quick adjustment of lost motion. Its nice to read other posts
about positive results with this budget line piano, and oh yes, the La Petite!

A tuner in the area ( not a guild member) has been using WD40 on actions-and
every thing else you need-for a number of years anmd swears by the stuff. On
pianos he regularly services he claims he finds no adverse affects from its
use- even the Steinways. I have never used it based on my experience with it
in the machine shop. I caught some reaction by list members when an earlier
post mentioned its use. I take it the stuff and pianos don"t mix. Has this
ground been covered on the list before?

Last Item. A customer called me to replace a broken agraff in the bicord
section of her Young Chang G150 Grand. I have removed an replaced many a
broken screw and stud and am familiar with the techniques, but have never done
this before. Are the some pitfalls to watch for? I hate looking like novice in
someone's living room.

Thanks for the comments and feedback. I enjoy reading the posts and the
freedom the list has in sharing their expertise. 

Paul Chick RPT
Plainview MN