Flange Bushing Cloth

[Benny L. Tucker]

List,
    I took on one of those jobs that I didn't really want, to re-pin the
butt flanges on an old upright action. While most bushings presented no
problem, a few pushed out while removing the old pins. I've never re-bushed
flanges before, so out with the Reblitz and Schaff catalog. Got my supplies,
and following Reblitz's directions, I could not get the cloth to meet in the
hole. Once, twice, three, four or more times I could not get this bushing
cloth to lay in the hole gapless. So I got to measuring and calculating and
here's what I came up with.
Flange Bushing drill = 7/64ths diameter. This calculates out to a hole that
would be 11/32nds in circumference.
Flange Bushing cloth advertised as 17/64th's. That's 5/64th's less than
needed already. The actual cloth I got out of a dozen strips was 8 strips of
7/32nds and 4 strips was 1/4 inch wide.
Now, am I missing something here? Am I using the wrong size drill to ream
the old bushings out? Is there a suitable alternative to "flange bushing
cloth", other than buying a whole yard of it and cutting myself. It would
take me forever to use a yard of the stuff, not to mention the price it
fairly steep just to have some on hand when the need arises.
Thanks for your help.

Benny L. Tucker
Precision Piano Tuning & Repair
Thomaston, Ga.