WD-50

[Newton Hunt]

WD-40 is a petroleum product composed of surfactants, solvents and 1/3
light machine oil.  It can be used as you describe and may well help
the situation butt would prefer a very little amount of "Liquid
Wrench" applied with an artists brush to limit the area of
application.  

The problem with WD-40 is that it most often comes as a spray can.  I
have a gallon of the stuff in an unpressurized can that I prefer to
apply with a syringe.

Applying anything that cannot be removed should be done knowledgeable,
discretely and sparingly.

		Newton

fwilliam@collegeclub.com wrote:
> 
> List,
>      I have a question about WD 40 spray.  I recently tuned an 1885
> upright that had suffered from string breakage and 20 years of non-tuning.
> In accordance with the manuel, I taped a thick paper over the pins and
> carefully sprayed WD 40 onto the pressure bar and upper bridge.  No
> strings broke as I tuned this piano.  This worked well, but I'm very
> cautions about WD 40 and pianos.  Am I right in my concern?  Should I do
> this more regularly on 80+ year old pianos to reduce the risk of string
> breakage?
> 
> Tomarrow I'll be tuning another upright that was never pulled up to A440
> pitch.  It was built in 1936 and hasn't been tuned for about 5 years.
> There is some rust on the pins and strings, but I've seen and tuned worse.
> Do you folks think I should lubricate the bridge and pressure bar of this
> piano?
> 
> -Fritz William Herrick, piano technician
> Greenville ME, Montreal PQ.
> 
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