Becket breaker?

[Dean May]

I use a 4" grinder with a cutting wheel on it. It will slice right through
the wires like hot butter. I cut just through the wires in front of the
tuning pin field. Each time you put the cutting wheel down you'll cut
through several wires at once. You can cut a whole section in 5 seconds, but
it may not be prudent to do it quite that fast. I'll cut a few notes, then
move to a different section and cut a few more, trying to bring the tension
down a little uniformly. It may not get the last 4 or 5 wires in section if
the strut is close.

 

If you do this in the bass section be prepared for the strings to go flying
and gouging into the back of the case. Line the back of the rim with
cardboard and lay a moving blanket on top of the strings. 

 

Now put on your goggles and use the electric drill. Many of the wire
remnants will come out with the pin, some will break off and stay. It's all
good either way. 

 

Dean

Dean May             cell 812.239.3359 

PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272 

Terre Haute IN  47802

 

  _____  

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Diane Hofstetter
Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2008 3:53 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Becket breaker?

 

Am I slow, or what? 
 
 For 30 years now I have been carefully breaking the beckets and then
extracting the tuning pins from the block using an electric drill.
Today I was having problems getting the wire to break at the beckets and was
getting frustrated.  
 
Since I had just purchased a new drill, I sat down to learn about it and get
my mind off those durned beckets.  I finished assembling the drill and
decided to try it out on some of the pins where I thought I had succeded in
breaking the wire at the beckets.
 
A couple of pins came out nicely and the new drill felt great in my hands
(much lighter than the old one).  Then, on to the next pin and zing! snap!
the becket broke while I was taking the pin out!
 
So I tried it on another pin--it snapped the wire at the becket as I was
pulling the pin out!  So I removed all the treble wire that way, after
looking closely at the stringing pattern and trying to remove pins in a
pattern that generally had a pin immediately to the left of the one that I
was removing, thus giving the wire something to hit against.
 
Have I been wasting all that time breaking beckets all these years?   Does
everybody else simply break the beckets at the same time as taking the pins
out? 


Diane Hofstetter

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