Pinblock/Frame Separation Report!

[Farrell]

Significant interest was generated by my post last week regarding a
pinblock/frame separation of 1/2" on a 1968 45" Baldwin Hamilton console. I
completed the repair today and all went well.

I had dropped the pitch 300 cents in the bass and tenor, and 400 cents in
the treble upon identifying the problem last week. A couple days later, I
use nine pipe clamps to SLOWLY draw the piano together. Even with OOoodles
of torque (or at least as much as I was willing to apply - given all the
snap, crackle, that was going on during the process) applied to the clamps,
there was still a good 1/16" gap along half the piano (and I am talking
MAJOR snap, crackle, pop - and boom - twice I inspected the plate with
flashlight because I thought for sure the plate had CRACKED!). I had
originally intended to use Titebond (thanks for convincing my Ron), but
because of the gap, I went back to my shop and got my West System epoxy and
their hi-density adhesive filler. Drilled eleven (yup, that's right - better
safe than sorry) 3/8" holes for the carriage bolts, let off the clamps a
bit, slopped (neatly of course) in a bunch of peanut-butter-consistency
epoxy, cranked on clamps, tightened bolts, scraped off squeeze-out epoxy,
and told the guy "let's wait a couple days for the epoxy to fully cure and
then we will take off clamps and bring the piano back up to pitch".

I really do not think the eleven bolts were overkill. Eight went into the
eight existing screw holes along the plate top. Upon installing those eight,
I let off the clamps a bit and saw that the plate and pinblock were bowing
out between the bolts in the treble - so in went three more bolts (although
I do know that the epoxy will do all the holding that is necessary)!

So, I went back today, took off clamps, and all looked well. I measured the
pitch of the piano and made a few interesting observations. I am VERY glad I
let the pitch down as much as I did.

BASS (A0 to C3): about 150 cents flat
TENOR (wound bicords - C#3 and D3): 150 cents flat
TENOR (plain strings - D#3 to F#5): 20 cents SHARP (at D#3), falling to 80
cents flat (at F#5)
TREBLE (G5 to A8): about 50 cents flat

So, the lower plain tenor strings with the tuning pins up at the top of the
plate where most plate movement occurred while pulling the piano back
together, went from 300 cents flat to 20 cents sharp. Like I say, glad I let
some tension down!  :-)   Well, today was a good luck day. I wonder what
tomorrow will bring?

Thanks for all the input last week, it really helped me out. Never having
done a big separation like this before, I felt as if I knew what to expect
before I went into it. Great feeling!  ;-)

Terry Farrell
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com