pianotech-digest V2000 #984

[Albertien de Pater]

Hello Dave,

When this happens to me, I sometimes flatten the end of the screw thread
with a file. Now you can fit the other let-off screwdriver on the thread,
the one for the small flat pin type. What is it called? (Henk C., help me,
afvaldraaier voor stiftjes???)
Well, if you're still with me, this often works better then a (vice-grip)
wrench. In combination with the heating ofcourse. 
I'm probably too late. Good luck,
Albertien, 
Amsterdam, Netherlands.








At 09:54 12-11-00 -0700, you wrote:
>Does anyone know how to loosen up "frozen" (seized-up) regulating screws --
>in this case, let-off screws.  This is in a Baldwin studio, only 20 years
>old or so.  I tried turning them carefully and the eyelets would break off.
>So I had to take off the button, grab the other end of the screw with a
>vise-grips and turn out the remainder of the screw.  But in some cases, that
>would break off also, leaving only that portion of the screw that's in the
>wood, and nothing left to grab.  So I tried heating them all with a torch,
>thinking the expanding metal would also expand the hole in the wood, then
>when they cooled, they might turn easier, but no dice.  They still break
>off.  And they're not even rusty.  I hate to put any type of oil or liquid
>lube, thinking that would expand the wood cells, making the let-off screws
>even tighter.  How to get the remainder of the screw out of the wood?  (I
>can do it by carving away enough wood to let me grab some screw with the
>visegrips, but hate to butcher the rail).  Can ya buy a new let-off rail
>from Baldwin (it's the common studio model that's in many many schools)?
>
>
>