Oiled Pinblock

[Tom Cole]

A long while back, I noticed that a tuning pin on a grand that I tune
had suddenly lost its torque and apparently had been contaminated with
valve or slide oil. I pulled the pin out, swabbed the hole liberally
with lacquer thinner and drove in an oversized pin.

Subsequently, the tuning pin in question has a tight but slippery feel
and is also quite jumpy and, therefore, hard to tune/settle. Obviously,
some oil remains in the block (there are hints of it having traveled to
a few of the neighboring pins) (thanks to the lacquer thinner?) and I'd
like to find a more successful way to repair the damage, since it seems
unlikely that the oil can be removed.

Recent talk on this list about pin driving fluid got me to thinking
about using varnish (or shellac?) as a barrier to oil contamination of
the block. I will most likely experiment with this idea soon but would
like to know if anyone has had any experience or opinions they might share.

Thanks,

Tom Cole