fixing clicking knuckles

[Dave Davis]

Hi Holly,
Don't use Gorilla Glue, you'll feel even worse than you do now. It foams, expands and makes a mess. If you have a couple of extras from the new knuckle box, you can try removing a new one and regluing with a little more clampage...a rubber band would be better than nothing, but you can probably fashion a "u" of sorts and use a C-clamp to hold it. If the knuckle comes off with no damage, clean the joints and re-use it. Also, any chance the hammer is loose?
Dave Davis, RPT


----- Original Message ----
From: holly quigley <hollyquigley at gmail.com>
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Friday, July 4, 2008 8:09:55 PM
Subject: Re: fixing clicking knuckles

I did think about the pinning - it's inconsistent and I intend to remedy that. But, the fact that some of the clickers have five swings and some have nine in them I think eliminates that blame. 
And the knuckles were actually a spongy deformed flattened mess with the buckskin gapping way away when I squeezed 'em. Just as a point of future reference, when you say "hard," is it a brittle feeling across the surface of the knuckle? Because new knuckles are quite firm and tight feeling - I don't know if I've come across hardened knuckles yet.
Thanks,
Holly

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "David Ilvedson" <ilvey at sbcglobal.net>
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2008 19:11:47 -0700
Subject: RE: fixing clicking knuckles

"Shanks still attached to the action"....check your pinning on the clickers...hot hide glue or titebond trim and molding would be a better choice...you don't need much glue, especially if you have a good fit...
Question:   you were changing the knuckles because the old ones were hard?    

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA 94044


 

________________________________

Original message
From: "holly quigley"  
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Received: 7/4/2008 4:58:56 PM 
Subject: fixing clicking knuckles

Well, I guess I screwed up. I installed a new set of knuckles on a piano, and now several of them click. I did some archive research and verified that the source of my clicking is very likely that the outside of the knuckles got glued just fine, but the cores lost contact with the base of the slots in the course of the glue drying. I'm pretty disgusted and frustrated with myself, and trying to just move forward proactively to get the job done right. My question for the list is, what is the best way to fix this? What I think happened is that in the course of installing the knuckles, I had them pressed into the slots clean and snug, but as I don't have a long term clamping system that won't distort the knuckles (does one exist, by the way?), as the glue dried the core pulled out of the slot slightly. (I did check the knuckles dry first, and the cores appeared to fit all the way in the slots, and were quite snug, before anyone asks) Should I try an
 expanding glue like Gorilla Glue here? Or go to CA glue which will hopefully dry faster? Or should I have just not pressed the knuckles so tightly that the (yellow) glue all slipped out of the slot? This isn't the first knuckle replacement I've done, but it's the first one I've done with the shanks still attached to the action.

It's times like this that I get overwhelmed by having learned enough early on that now I'm employed by a boss who speaks highly of me and puts me on jobs like this. Most of the time it's great, but I do miss the safety net of being under a wing. :(

Thanks in advance, and wishing everyone who's celebrating a happy Independence Day,
Holly Quigley
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