pianoman wrote: > > I wonder what happens when you get to the point of drilling out the > Steinway plate to accept plate bushings and the holes in the lower middle > start to overlap one another? > Are all Steinways of the same model (in the older ones you would be doing > this too), have their plate holes drilled in exactly the same place so you > could say one model you can do this but another model you could not? Steinway plates should NEVER be bored out to accept plate bushings. Steinways and other similarly designed pianos don't have plate bushings because that is the way the engineers painstakingly designed them. The tension stresses in these instruments are completly different than pianos with bushings, and installing them dramatically alters this. This area of the plate (also called the "plate webbing"), is considerably thinner than on pianos designed for plate bushings. Time and time again, stories have been told of technicians finding beautiful Steinway pianos with cracked, fractured, or missing plate webbing pieces because a previous technician bored it out to accept bushings in a previous rebuild. Furthermore, it is simply asthetically WRONG. Fundamental rule of rebuilding: When in doubt, always duplicate. I won't (and can't) elaborate on the reasons why you don't install plate bushings in Steinways any further. I am not an engineer. BUT... I have heard numerous "structural" reasons why you don't do this from a variety of well respected and experienced rebuilders many times over the years. Perhaps someone else better experienced in Steinway engineering can contribute to my point. Rob Goodale, RPT Staff tech, Northern Arizona U.
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