Rob, et al, I hear this often, but has anyone actually had an experience where this has occurred? An assistant of mine ran a quick experiment a few years ago of dousing a piece of pinblock material on a monochord with silicone/naphtha solution and seeing the results over a period of time. He didn't take torque measurements so I'm not exactly sure what the change was. However, evening with being doused in that manner, the pin went from a little too tight (like some pianos we already tune) to smoother in turning but still well within exceptable limits. Now I'm not advocating putting lubricant on the pinblock and in fact I personally haven't found the need to apply any lubricant to the strins or bearing points. On the subject of silicone being applied to action centers: In a liberal application you might use at most four ounces (VERY liberal aplication). At an 8 parts naphtha to 1 part silicone mixture, this puts 1/2 ounce of silicone on the entire action. Since this is applied to the actions centers rather than the hammers, and most of the centers are on the wippen, I can't imagine very much creeping down the shank, up through the hammer, leaching over to the string during the momentary contact, traveling all the way up the string, throught the bearing points, around the tuning pin, down past the plate bushing and into the pinblock. Whew, quite a journey! Actually I'm much more concerned by the silicone contained in the Pledge sprayed around the piano, us and the owners getting hand oils on the pins and people sneezing nasty stuff over the instrument. Hopefully I can take the time to conduct some rigorously controlled experiments on this in the future and be able to give a better answer and commentary. Now, as to the issue of whether or not action centers should ever be lubricated, that's another topic for another day. Have a great Independence day! Allan Allan L. Gilreath, RPT Gilreath Piano & Organ Co. Calhoun, GA USA Gilreath@aol.com In a message dated 98-07-03 06:44:55 EDT, you write: << Dick, Most of us try to stay away from silicone in any form, because it seems to "creep" back up to the tuning pins and thence to the pinblock, where it can do a good job of lubricating the pins in the block. Rob Stuart-Vail >>
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