>Hi Chuck: Have fun with it, but I am not sure it would save you any time or be any more accurate. I?ve fit many a Steinway block and others over the years. It is almost always my practice to top fit the pinblock to the bottom of the plate as well as face fit it to the flange. Like others on the list, I have seen very warped plates every way from Sunday, but my fitting is more or less the same for all. With a block like yours where you know you will be taking down the ends quite a bit, I would take some thickness measurements on the old block at the ends. Then I would use a belt sander or power hand planer to hog the material down to something above the height of your sample. Don?t be too fussy yet. Having either chalked or graphite the face flange and the bottom of the plate, I would start by smacking the pinblock along its length with a mallet against the bottom of the plate. Then I use a 4? disc sander with 60 grit paper on it to start grinding down the high spots. (Or use the belt sander if you are still hogging a fair amount off. Keep grinding down the high spots that are indicated by the chalk or graphite marks. You will be wacking the pinblock against the face flange and grinding down the high spots. Go back and forth between the face and the top. When the entire length of the top of the pinblock lies flat on the plate without rocking you are there. Same for the face flange. I would urge you to have immediate access to the piano (as in be working with the piano in the same room.). If you are regluing the block to the stretcher and the ends (what we would call a fully fitted block). You are starting with a block that should be too long, too wide, and too deep, and then cutting off the excess where needed to get an exact fit ? along with some indexing method that will allow you to do all this and still get the plate back where it was before fore and aft, and side to side, within a tolerance of 1/64? or less. If the fellow who brought you the block to do does not have some kind of protocol for plate location, this is a recipe for disaster. Using the plate bolts as guides will allow a tolerance of about ?? in any direction, which is the same as no guides at all. It is vitally important for you to have all of his teardown specs related to the plate and pinblock ? the two of you need to know that you are on the same page. Good luck, Chuck! Will< Will - I think your method sounds better than the jig idea I had come up with. I'm printing off your suggestions, and will be in contact with the guy who brought me the plate and pinblock to coordinate our efforts. Thanks for giving me some ideas to go on. Chuck -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090916/ae45ac4a/attachment.htm>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC