1935 Dekalb baby grand piano with about 8 loose pins in the bass area. Pinblock cracks? Well, yes, but an examination of the pin block reveals similar cracks throughout the block, and yet only these pins in the bass are affected. The cracks don't emanate from these pins either. I CA glued them this past summer, and that seemed to do the trick, but at that time the piano was in a garage. Now that it's indoors, and the humidity is much lower, the pins are loose again. A second dose of CA helped a few but not all. (One problem with the CA glue is that it seems to well up in a pool at the base of the pin, and doesn't seem to go down into the hole where it's needed.) Anyway, I unscrewed the loose pins and inserted a sandpaper shim, 80 grit, face outward, drove the pins back in about half way or so, and this worked great on all but two of the pins. On these two, the pins do not seem to thread themselves any deeper into the hole. I turned and turned and they just twirl in place. I hammered them in farther and they do hold the string tension (so far, anyway) but they are higher than their neighbors and look strange. What's the deal with these two? There are a couple more to do, and I'm paranoid that they won't thread their way back in either. Any thoughts or advice? Tom Sivak
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