I thank you for the criticism, Susan, but my feeling is this: 1) I don't want to come back and do this again, if I have not used enough the first time. 2)I do not want to try to explain to the customer that it needs a second application, that may not work either, and I need more money for this. 3) I believe there may be pianos where there IS no "second chance": that once CA has been applied, it creates barriers to the stuff getting into places it needs to go, so a second application would be futile. And then I'd REALLY have a hard time charging the needed fee! Nope. I put in as much as the piano accepts, without being ridiculous. Usually about 4 ounces per piano. Once it ceases to sink in the tuning poin holes ( usually after the second pass ) I stop. I'll go back over a few that are still absorbing, though. I tell the customer that CA works 90% of the time, sometimes very well, but that there are no guarantees. I give it my best shot, and that's that. I will leave the pins up to drive later, after the CA, in an upright. But I might drive them first in a grand, as inverting the piano and CA-ing from underneath puts hard caps over the pins' ends. Another reason to pre-tune. Peace, G --- Susan Kline <skline@peak.org> wrote: > At 10:31 AM 9/23/2005 -0500, you wrote: > >I use drop cloths now, always. > > How about using LESS GLUE!?!?? > > This whole thread just shouts at me, "they are using > too much!" > Like pouring someone a cup of coffee, and you don't > think you've done it > right until the coffee slops over the saucer onto > the tablecloth. > > I know we're in the early stages of using CA glue, > without a great deal > of hard data as to the effects of more or less, and > the timing of the > application(s), but I get the strong feeling that > less is better, and > that two small applications is much better than one > flooding. The first > (small) application seals the tiny cracks, and the > second re-lines the > tuning pin holes. Well, that's how I account for > what I observe. > > The great blessing of CA for loose pins, it seems to > me, is that by > following small cracks, it improves the other loose > pins in the area. > Some of what we used to do, like tapping down a > loose pin or using an > oversized pin, made the neighbors worse. So, if > using CA on a really > bad pin, surrounded by sort of bad pins, will help > them all to a certain > extent, and will certainly prepare the area for more > glue if it is > needed later, by sealing some of the small cracks, > why try to do it > all at once? > > It also sounds like people are flooding every single > tuning pin as a > standard practice. Maybe it's just our benign > climate, but even the bad > pinblocks I work on here (refugees from other > places) have large sections > where all the pins are tunable and okay, though not > really snug. > Why not just put the stuff where it is needed, and > leave the rest alone? > > So far, it's worked for me to not tilt the piano. I > put some CA at the seam > at the top of the tuning pin, wait a little, put a > little more on. I use > Loctite's little plastic bottle with the long narrow > spout. It just lives > in my kit. If CA starts to run down the plate, I sop > it up with the corner > of a shop towel. After a few minutes, I try to tune > it. Once in awhile, > I give it a little more, but most of the time it's > tunable after ten > minutes. On repeat visits, the old treated pins are > okay, and I'll do a > couple more if need be. > > It's also a lot less time and fuss and mess to treat > only the pins which > won't hold. The job just slips into a normal tuning, > like dusting off the > innards, fixing a couple bobbling notes, bending a > scraping bridle wire, > etc. A few minutes as needed, and if one sees the > piano on a regular > basis, pretty soon loose pins aren't a problem with > it. (in my experience > .. YMMV) > > Susan > > _______________________________________________ > pianotech list info: > https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives > __________________________________ Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 http://mail.yahoo.com
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