>Of course, I assumed the holes were straight and of course they are angled. >(expletive deleted) Well, that figures, doesn't it? >Yesterday I went to a store that had a couple of Baldwins with vertical >hitch pins. I used my rubber yardstick and were surprised to find the pins >were .224 dia. and protruded .465 above the plate. The strings were about >half way up. Ron N suggested 5 mm roll pins. I wasn't having much luck >finding them locally, but Mcmaster-Carr had them. I ordered them on line >and should have them by Tues. I'll try drilling the angled holes to 5mm and >if there doesn't seem to be enough bearing surface, I'll redrill to 7/32 >(still less than .224) and go to the larger pin. I got away with that with the Mason & Hamlin A I did a few years ago.I originally ended up with the 5mm partially by design, partially by chance. I wanted something stiff enough that it wouldn't flail around and waste string energy, but small enough in diameter that I wouldn't have to drill out much plate, and to keep pins as far apart as possible. The narrow pins keep string segments more nearly parallel too, but that was a ways down on the priority list. During the planning stages, I was at my local salvage yard looking for materials for another project when I decided to swing through the fastener shed, where I was greeted by a rather large bin of 5mm pins. They looked just like what I had in mind and as it turned out, they worked very well. Del is using Groov-Pin type 67, or Drive-Lok type G, I forget which. They have the benefit of a smaller diameter groove for the pin to set in, and are driven in to set final string height and bearing. I have used the roll pins because I didn't want to give up the option of raising the string again if I went too low. This was a whole new world to me the first time I did it, and I wanted to leave an escape route. A tip from my upcoming book, "The Value of Cowardice in The Design Process". >Now the >tail length will be about 130mm instead of 30mm. I expect you'll like that better. Ron N
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