Hi Al: I've done it both ways over the years, and I think that fitting the two pieces separately is by far the easiest way to do it. I would make the bass capping piece first, fit it to the flange as well as the underside of the plate, leaving it a bit too thick at first. Then I would fit the larger bottom piece to the face flange and the underside of the tenor and treble section of the plate. Then joint down the bottom of the bass capping piece until the larger piece contacts the underside of the plate fully. Remove the pieces, drill 4 indexing holes for bridge pins into the bottom of the bass capping piece, place the bass piece onto the inverted plate underside. Now you will carefully press the larger pinblock piece against the plate flange as you press upward into the indexing pins. (Actually, I wack it with a rubber mallet). Remove, drill out the holes, and clamp the two pieces together after applying glue. Proceed as usual from there. If I am visualizing your block correctly, this could be reinstalled as a fully fitted pinblock where it butts the sides of the case and is glued to the stretcher - if you have indexed the plate and pinblock location prior to removal of both. I do this with locater pins drilled through the plate into the pinblock before teardown, and have made many a new pinblock for a piano that was fully fitted, where it had been a floater before. It's not that much more work, and will strengthen the mounting of the pinblock to the rim sides and the stretcher. Whether there is an acoustic benefit to doing that is questionable. Mark Perry brought up the idea of using a carving duplicator machine to duplicate this or the more complex two or four piece Chickering pinblocks. This might be of value if the original block(s) were well mated to the plate, which they often are not. Even if it were well fit, I would not trust the duplicator to get the screw holes in exactly the right place. With the two or four piece blocks, these are machine screws going into a threaded hole in the plate - so there is almost no fudge factor for location of screw holes. You would likely find that you would have to enlarge the holes in the pinblock to make it work. Better to simply use dowel centers set into the screw holes in the plate to index the new holes in the pinblock. Will -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Al Guecia/AlliedPianoCraft Sent: Sunday, October 18, 2009 8:39 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Restringing with original pinblock Will, this is a one piece pinblock where the bass section is thicker than the tenor and treble. It shouldn't be a big problem to duplicate. I have two approaches I could take. I could get a pinblock the thickness of the bass section and route down the tenor and treble, or get one the thickness of the t & t and add a layer of maple to the bass section. If I can get my hands on a suitable piece of maple, I think the latter would be a better choice. Most of my rebuildings have been Steinways and M&H, this is my first Chickering pinblock. Al -------------------------------------------------- From: "William Truitt" <surfdog at metrocast.net> Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2009 4:47 PM To: <pianotech at ptg.org> Subject: Re: [pianotech] Restringing with original pinblock > It's not possible on any of the two or four piece double decker Chickering > pinblocks that I have seen or rebuilt. Because the machine screws go > through the pinblock into a threaded hole in the plate, are surrounded by > plate flanges on all four sides (most notably between the back of the > block > and the stretcher), in conjunction with the struts at the ends being in > the > way, it would not be possible, and would serve no practical value. > > Al, have you done this style of Chickering pinblock before? > > Will Truitt > > > -----Original Message----- > From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On > Behalf > Of Mike Spalding > Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2009 9:38 AM > To: pianotech at ptg.org > Subject: Re: [pianotech] Restringing with original pinblock > > Al, > > If it's at all possible/practical, try to find a way to anchor the > pinblock to the case. All in the spirit of playing it safe. Others > with some actual Chickering experience may be able to suggest how... > > Mike > > Al Guecia/AlliedPianoCraft wrote: >> >> The upside (not performance wise) it that it's just attached to >> the plate and has no connection to the case. Even the low end >> pianos I've done are screwed into the case. Go figure. >> > > >
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