Drying pinblock before stringing

Cy Shuster cy.shuster@theshusters.org
Fri, 28 Feb 2003 08:39:21 -0600


OK, I know we've all been over this, but as a newbie associate I just have
to ask.  When we apply an alcohol/water mixture to bushings to free up tight
action centers, doesn't that work by making the wood swell up around the
pin, compressing the felt?  And then when the alcohol helps the water
evaporate, the wood shrinks back?  (Or do I remember this backwards: do we
do this to bushings to tighten up loose ones?)

And wouldn't a one-foot plank of wood get longer (and bigger in each outside
dimension) as it expands, when soaked?  Are you saying the outer edges would
move away from each other, but the walls of the holes would also expand
towards the outer edges?  What if you drilled a hole near the edge and sawed
it off through the center of the hole?  Would the straight edge move outward
from expansion, and the curved wall of the hole move inward?

Just trying to understand this -- I know it's counterintuitive!  Thanks.

--Cy Shuster--
PTG Associate Member
Rochester, MN

> --- Ken Jankura <kenrpt@earthlink.net> wrote:
> > Dear Thump,
> > OK, one last time, all together now, holes in wood
> > act as wood itself would
> > act. Fact. Truth. Take it to the bank.
> > A FINGER-SIZE HOLE IN WOOD WILL GET BIGGER WHEN WOOD
> > IS PLACED IN WATER.
> > One note of exception - the hole will initially get
> > smaller as water enters
> > the wood fibers and cells and spaces by the cut
> > edges. But upon equilibrium,
> > you'll wonder why you drilled the hole so big.



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