Dunce of the Year

[John Delacour]

At 6:26 AM -0600 10/3/02, Avery Todd wrote:

>I've only been working on pianos for almost 30 yrs. :-)
>DUH!!!!

Me too, and I claim the prize.  Getting the string plate out of an 
1867 Kirkman is never going to be the simplest of tasks, but I've 
broken enough cases apart in my 27 years not to be scared of a bit of 
chisel work.  The side blocks holding the desk guides are glued on 
after the plate is installed and then the shaped front block is glued 
on right up against the front flange of the plate.  A feeler gauge 
told me I'd need to do some damage here.  I found the glue line for 
the side blocks, sawed along the veneer and with a few good taps of 
the chisel got the blocks away without even tearing the wood.  Now 
for that tight section along the front at the bass -- not nice work 
digging a channel 3\8" wide and 2 1/2" deep and 18" long, but a bit 
at a time it was done and the plate looked nice and ready to come out.

Jack under the treble end and up it comes...at the treble end. 
Obviously I need to do some more chiselling.  Several hours later I 
know for certain there's nothing stopping it.  I've checked a dozen 
times for that plate screw that I missed, but I've definitely got 
them all out and still that plate's stuck firm to the wrestplank for 
half its length.

No clever screws from under the plank...but look at that little 
curved row of pilot holes!  I'd seen them before several times and 
even knew what they were, but I'd not made the connexion with the 
sticking plate.  Needless to say, two sections of agraffes were 
screwed through the plate into the wrestplank, so I hadn't missed a 
single screw, I'd missed about 50!

That was last week, and I haven't felt so foolish since six months 
ago when I bored all the angles of a fine set of Steinway hammers 
with the mirror image of the proper angles and had to throw them away.

I'm glad to say the Kirkman plate is fine and the repairs needed to 
the case will be as simple as if I'd done a tenth of the chiselling, 
but my hands and my pride are very badly hurt!

JD