Hi Bruce, I don't know if others might know of a few tricks using alcohol and water, perhaps in conjunction with a hair dryer?? to shrink the felt in the center pin bushings, but I have heard that it's possible. Perhaps someone knowledgeable with the technique will chime in. But the reason I wrote was that something else popped into my mind that I've run into on occasion. Perhaps it is of no value in this situation, but perhaps it might be of use to someone somewhere sometime. I have, on occasion, run across a drop action spinet where the keys failed to return to their normal rest position. Upon checking things out, I did not find any of the usual sticky points. The hammer flanges were loose, the wippen flanges were loose, the key bushings were loose, the balance holes were plenty big enough, the hammer return springs were fine, but all put together, it didn't work right. What I found on a few was that the wire coming up from the elbow and through the little grommet on the end of the key was at such an angle as to prevent the thing from coming back to rest. On the ones that have the little grommet, there's usually a little metal 'fork' on the end of the key that receives the grommet. It might, at first, not seem to be a point that would cause problems, but the natural angle of the fork to the wire is 90 degrees. If it gets too far off of 90 degrees, it starts to put pressure on the action in such a way as to not allow freedom of movement, usually in just one direction. What to do?? There aren't a lot of options that I know of. Either bend the fork (usually down, I think, I can't remember), or bend the wire for more freedom of motion. Probably not particularly helpful right now, but it was a thought that came to mind when I read your post. Just something to put on the upper left hand corner shelf in the back of your mind in hopes that if you ever need it someday, it'll throw rocks and miscellaneous debris at you! :-) Good luck, Brian Trout Quarryville, PA btrout@desupernet.net
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