List, MMDers will know of John Tuttle's question on pin block delamination. Over the course of the past few days we have been discussing the matter and I suggested to inquire on this list. I thought he was subscribed. Anyway, here is the ? . . . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hi All, I need a general concensus from the group of professional piano rebuilders. Here's the situation: I was called in to evaluate the condition of an Aeolian Duo-Art grand that was 'completely restored' three years ago. Upon looking at the unit, my immediate response was, 'this unit was not restored, it was repaired and some rebuilding work was done'. The unit was restrung, new hammer heads, dampers, key tops, repaired soundboard, retubed, all pneumatics recovered and piano refinished (if you can call it that, the pores are plainly visible). Upon removing the key slip and boards covering the player assembly, I immediately noticed two very large separations in the plys of the ORIGINAL PIN BLOCK in the sub-bass region. I could clearly see the tuning pins through the separations. The larger separation, between the third from the bottom ply and the second from the bottom ply, is a full 1/8" wide and about 2-1/2 long. The second separation, from the next to last ply and the bottom ply, is 3/32" wide and about 1-3/4" long. The separated plys are also cracked in half at the mid-point, directly in line with one of the tuning pins. Laying a straight edge across the tops of the tuning pins, they were found to all be the same height. A simple drawing of the problem area can be seen at: http://www.player-care.com/gifs/splitbl2.gif The home in which the unit resides has 24/7 humidity control and central air-conditioning, i.e., a controlled environment. My questions to all of you are: 1) Is there any way this degree of separation could have occurred AFTER the unit was restrung three years ago? 2) Does anybody have any examples of a block delaminating to this degree under any circumstance except improper stringing practices? Thank-you, John A. Tuttle (john@player-care.com) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - first published in the Mechanical Music Digest: http://mmd.foxtail.com/ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I gave John instructions on how to subscribe to this list's digest but just in case please cc to him also, this could be a good thread. Jon Page Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. (jpage@capecod.net) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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