grand pedal lyre

[Roger Jolly]

Hi Don,
        In our neck of the woods we see a lot of pedal and lyre problems.
At one time I use to knock them apart make a new maple shim and reglue, and
it took several hrs, time I was through. Now I just hammer the joint back
together, tape the crack with PVC electrical tape and fill all the voids
with medium viscosity CA glue. I also treat the end grain of the dowel with
low viscosity CA glue. This type of repair has stood up well on university
pianos that recieve a lot of heavy usage.
For the last two years we have been treating the end grain of the dowels
with low viscosity CA glue on all new pianos. Our field failure rate has
dropped to zero, where as before failures were a common occurance. 
In low humidity conditions it stops the shrinkage and hence the joint failure.
Note the PVC tape, the glue will not stick to it, or wick into it. Masking
tape absorbs the glue and you will find that you will have lots of clean up.
Hope this helps
Roger
       



At 05:50 PM 3/17/99 -0700, you wrote:
>I would appreciate suggestion concerning the pedal lyre on a Howard grand.
>Made by Kawai for Baldwin.
>
>The two  vertical stems (props? ) are both loose in the top  & bottom
>horizontal pieces.  They have separated about 1 inch. What is the procedure
>for repair?   Just knock them completely apart, glue all surfaces, and
>clamp?
>
>It appears there are wedges at the ends of the vertical stems.  Are these
>glued in?  How does one remove them to reglue?  On the inner surfaces that I
>can see, it doesn't look like there was ever any glue on them.  Are only the
>wedge surfaces supposed to be glued?
>
>Thank you.
>
>dcp@sosinc.net
>Don Price
>816 Vickie
>Ft. Morgan  CO 80701
>
>
>
Roger Jolly
Balwin Yamaha Piano Centres.
Saskatoon/Regina.
Canada.