wasted CA on grand pinblock

[Greg Newell]

Frank,
    I applaud your efforts to do good and conscientious work. Regarding 
your last sentence I think the same holds true in this country. It's too 
bad that so much of our talent and hard earned money is given away to 
foreign products. I try very hard to buy as many products as I can that 
are made by my friends, neighbors and countrymen. It's not so easy to do 
that anymore. I fear that one day our current collective buying habits 
will do us in. My two cents anyway.

all the best,
Greg Newell

Frank Emerson wrote:
> How do you know if there is a gap between the pinblock and the plate?  
> Tighten the pinblock screws.  If you find that they can be tightened 
> even a little, the gap described in the original post probably did 
> exist, before tightening the screws.  With about 20 tons of combined 
> string tension pulling on the pins significantly above the top surface 
> of the pinblock, the tension will pull the pinblock up to the plate at 
> the stretch side of the block, and down, away from the plate at the 
> plate flange side.  This is encouraged by the draft angle of the plate 
> flange (about 7 degrees), matched by the angle of a well-fitted 
> pinblock.  Even this slight angle of incline constitutes a ramp to 
> further encourage movement in this direction.
>  
> I have no experience with CA treatment of pinblocks, but in light of 
> the problem presented in the original post, I would suggest tightening 
> and retightening all plate screws before CA treatment.
>  
> In designing new pianos, I position all pinblock screws that would 
> otherwise be covered by strings, to be located in the spaces between 
> unison string groups, so they will be accessible for tightening in the 
> field.  Others in a company where I previously worked scoffed at my 
> effort, saying, "Why bother.  Nobody tightens pinblock screws.  When 
> you tuned pianos, did you ever tighten pinblock screws?"  My response 
> was, "Yes!  Not every time I tuned a piano, but regularly on pianos 
> that I maintained routinely."
>  
> I have also tried to get manufacturers, for whom I have worked, to add 
> a machining operation to make the plate flange perpendicular, or 
> better yet, with a reverse angle to the original draft angle.  Until 
> now, all have been unwilling to add to the limited machine time on 
> their CNC milling machines to include an "unnecessary" operation.  The 
> company I am now working for has agreed to include this feature in my 
> next design. 
>  
> This is a Chinese company, by the way.  The criticism of Asian pianos 
> I read on this list and from others in America is well deserved, but I 
> believe that you will very soon be pleasantly surprised with the 
> quality you will soon see from China, at least from one company, if I 
> have anything to do with it.  We expect to show my Hailun concert 
> grand at the NAMM show in Jan.  I do not wish to reopen the 
> can-of-worms about working conditions in China, but I can tell you 
> that if you took away the jobs at Hailun Musical Instruments in 
> Ningbo, the works in those jobs would be hard pressed to find as good 
> a life style as they now enjoy with their current jobs.
>  
> Frank Emerson
> pianoguru at earthlink.net <mailto:pianoguru at earthlink.net>
>  
>  
>
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     *From:* William R. Monroe <mailto:pianotech at a440piano.net>
>     *To: *Pianotech List <mailto:pianotech at ptg.org>
>     *Sent:* 11/8/2006 6:23:17 PM
>     *Subject:* Re: wasted CA on grand pinblock
>
>     As an addendum, Dave, how is it you know there is a gap between
>     the block and the plate??  Without taking them apart, it would
>     seem hard to tell.  Are you assuming that since CA leaked out one
>     side that there is a gap?  If so, I'd caution against that
>     assumption, and echo what both I and Dean wrote regarding quantity
>     of CA and rate of application (little bit at a time).
>      
>     Food for thought.
>      
>     Regards,
>     William R. Monroe
>      
>
>                 I  CA'd a grand pinblock yesterday, and it did tighten
>             up the pins, but I don't think all that much CA got down
>             the tuning pin holes.  There was a gap between the bottom
>             of the plate and the top of the block, and the top surface
>             was downhill toward the belly rail, so a good deal of my
>             CA ran toward the back edge of the pinblock and dripped
>             down onto the newspapers I had on the keybed.  What a
>             waste!  The stuff ain't cheap.  
>
>                 But how could I have known in advance that the top of
>             the pinblock wasn't level?  The top of the plate
>             surrounding the tuning pins seemed level.  If I had known,
>             I would've jacked up the rear leg a bit.  But how far?  If
>             the plate above the pinblock isn't precisely a uniform
>             thickness, you can't be sure. 
>
>                 Now I'm reluctant to CA again if there appears to be a
>             noticeable gap between the plate and block (I suppose
>             there's always some), for fear the CA will just run all
>             over the top of the pinblock and not get down the holes.
>
>                 --David Nereson, RPT
>
>                
>
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