Wurlitzer Iron Pinblock -Anyone ever restring one of these things?

[Kendall Ross Bean]

Scott~

Thanks for the great photo and the excellent insights.

So far I haven't seen any V.T.S. markings, but I will keep looking. So Beale
Piano used it too, huh?

WD-40 seems an excellent idea, as well, to avoid broken pins. 

It reminds one that these iron wrest planks are quite different creatures
from the conventional type of pinblock, where you wouldn't want to let WD-40
anywhere near it!

WD-40 also works great for disassembling those frozen muffler and exhaust
system parts on the car, just let it soak in overnite... ;-)

-Or Liquid WrenchTM. 

Sincerely,

~Kendall 

-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Jackson [mailto:ScottWayneJackson at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, September 13, 2008 7:04 AM
To: 'Pianotech List'
Subject: RE: Wurlitzer Iron Pinblock -Anyone ever restring one of these
things?

Kendall,
>From the photo that you provide, the tuning system appears to be 
>identical
to that used by Beale in Sydney Australia. Does it have "Vader Tuning
System" stamped anywhere?

As you will not be replacing the pins, nor need to worry about wearing out
the pin block, nor worry about the pin height, then you don't need any
special technique to string them; just put the wire in the hole and turn the
pin.

One problem that you may encounter is a siezed pin, which you will find
snaps off quite a bit easier than your everyday tuning pin, and you won't
have a spare. Australian tuners are instructed to apply WD40 freely to these
blocks before working on them.

There is a photo of factory girls stringing uprights with this iron tuning
block in the 1920s at:
http://www.ramin.com.au/annandale/story4.shtml

Scott Jackson
Mt Keira, NSW, Australia.



-----Original Message-----

Since the tuning pins are inserted into the web/block from the underside,
and are then wedged in place by the screw, I was just wondering if anyone
had any ideas how these might have been strung at the factory, or how one
might go about restringing one, since you can't simply wind the coil on the
pin in the normal way and then just stick it in the block.