Bridge Pin Drilling

[Doug Garman]

Terry--

I flopped a spinet, removed the bass strings, filled a crack the full length
of the bridge with 2-ton epoxy, set the bridge pins in place ( it was easy
to see where they used to be), wiped away the excess, and left.  The piano
was in a spare bedroom. The next day I replaced the bass strings, righted
the piano, and pitch raised and tuned it.  Happy customer.

Translation:  I don't have a shop and don't know the first thing about
recapping a bridge.  The previous day on the same piano I closed two sizable
cracks between the pin block and frame and drove every tuning pin as far as
they would go.  She did not want to spend any more than necessary, but the
piano had been in the family "forever", and she wanted to start playing
again.

Doug Garman, Assoc.
Granbury, TX

----- Original Message -----
From: Farrell <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2000 9:29 PM
Subject: Re: Bridge Pin Drilling


> I would consider recapping, but it just doesn't appear to be a reasonable
> option in someone's living room. Or am I not aware of some great tricks?
> This piano is in an elderly couple's nice living room.  No way am I going
to
> router down the existing cap, clamp on a new cap (I always use go bars in
my
> shop), and rout off the cap edges in this living room. All of this will be
> double hard with the plate in and all the plain wire strings in. If this
job
> were being done in my shop, it would absolutely be a new cap. But in this
> living room - I just can't imagine doing that. Have others done such a job
> in a home with the plate and all the plain wires in? If so, how did you do
> it, and how long did it take?
>
> Terry Farrell
> Piano Tuning & Service
> Tampa, Florida
> mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mark Story" <mark.story@mail.ewu.edu>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2000 5:47 PM
> Subject: RE: Bridge Pin Drilling
>
>
> > Terry,
> >
> > I agree with Dale that you should cap the bridge. Besides restoring the
> > bridge pins to their proper location you can also fix the likely
original
> > problem, that of having insufficient down bearing. Even a
> less-than-perfect
> > new cap of the correct thickness would be better that the best epoxy
job.
> If
> > you have capped a bridge before, you know that it wouldn't take all that
> > much longer than the epoxy procedures posted here. If you haven't why
not
> do
> > your first cap job for the same price as the epoxy job, and eat the
extra
> > time as learning time. I did this with my first soundboard replacement.
> When
> > the piano (tiny no-name grand) came in, it was for a shim job, but we
> found
> > out that the crown was gone. I gave them a new soundboard for the labor
> cost
> > of the shim job, plus the cost of the new panel and ribstock. Everything
> > came out well, and I got to give my new press and jigs a tryout on a
> > no-fault basis.
> >
> >
> > Mark Story. RPT
> > Eastern Washington University
> > Cheney, Washington
> >
> >  -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]  On
Behalf
> > Of Farrell
> > Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2000 12:20 PM
> > To: pianotech@ptg.org
> > Subject: Bridge Pin Drilling
> >
> > I have refurbished bridges with small cracks next to the bridge pins
> > successfully using epoxy. In these cases the position of the original
> bridge
> > pin hole was quite evident. I will be repairing a bass bridge on a 1937
> > Mathushek Spinet Grand (this piano - what a hoot! - pretty good shape)
in
> > the near future. The speaking length side bicord pins have all cracked
the
> > bridge top and all moved over like little dominoes, such that there is a
> > continuous crack all along the pin line. The bicord bass strings are
> > straight over the bridge, there is no dogleg as there should be across
the
> > bridge top because of the pin movement due to the cracked bridge top. I
> know
> > the best thing to do is recap. This is out of the question due to
> financial
> > considerations.
> >
> >
> >
> >