paul bruesch wrote: > Hi Ron, > > Well, the piano is in my "shop" (garage... it's really hard to refer to > it as a "shop", and even more so during a Minnesota winter) and the > bridge is already out of the piano. The left-hand end of the apron was > swinging on its nail after splitting top-bottom. I think I can handle > that, tho'. Ah, the "cat on the screen door" syndrome, where you let the tension down and the bridge falls to the bottom of the piano. An old favorite! That makes the decision really easy. > The original bridge was capped, but the divots as you say do extend into > the root. Perhaps this would be even more of a "learning opportunity" > than I'd ever anticipated. I'm assuming you would make a solid > replacement without cap, right? Right. If the bearing and such seemed about where you want it, assuming you could tell, just reproduce the dimensions of the original root/cap in Delignit, horizontal lamination. If you need more thickness, glue two slabs of Delignit together and rip to the thickness needed. It doesn't matter where the joint ends up. Lay out the pin locations from either a pattern made from the original (quick and nearly always adequate) or in the piano stretching thread where the strings will go. Drill deeper than necessary for the pin length, bevel the "notches" with a spokeshave, and install the pins. If you have plate clearance, leave the end a little longer where it broke out in the original, and don't bevel the top edge of the end, so it'll be stronger. Pin it, driving pins to final height. Finish it, or not (I never did), and install. That's it. Try it. It'll be fun. Ron N
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