> From: kurt baxter <fortefile at gmail.com> > Date: August 12, 2010 6:46:58 PM EDT > > Ok, so I just sold an elbow replacement job to a client with a very "low miliage" '51 Lester with crumbling plastic elbows. > > It turns out I have a bag of Vagias replacement elbows in stock, that were given to me by a recently retired tech... > They are not the early cream/white colored plastic that I have heard were problematic, but instead they are a transparent green-tint color. Not a strong green, but still very different from the current glass-clear elbows sold by Vagias. Other than they they are the exactly same "clip-on" design. > > So question: Should I use this set, or buy some brand new ones? Am I risking them re-breaking in a few years? > Anyone else run across this batch type? Hi Kurt, I have not run into the green-tint elbows, so I can't comment on their durability directly. However, the design improvement that Ernie Vagias made to his elbows (in addition to changing the plastic type) was the inclusion of a reinforcing gusset under the bushing in the more modern ones. Here is a picture I posted a while ago: I sort of outlined the reinforcing gusset or fin in green. The early, cream elbows (with no gusset) that I have seen fail have almost all cracked right under the bushing, so the reinforcement was clearly a good idea. I would guess that if the green-tint elbows have the reinforcement (as pictured above), then they might be OK; if they lack the reinforcement, I'd pitch them. Assuming that they have the reinforcement, if you count them and come up with 89 or 90, I'd take one and try to break it, just to give you an idea of the plastic's strength. Wear heavy work gloves (mine are Kevlar) if you try it manually (breaking plastic can be very sharp and release a lot of energy upon failure). Or, put one end in a vise and use a tool to apply force to the other end (safer but less satisfying). Wear safety glasses either way, of course. If they both have the reinforcement and are hard to break, I think that you'd be safe to put them in. Joe DeFazio Pittsburgh -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100813/cedeea1a/attachment-0001.htm> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: VagiasElbowClear.jpg Type: image/jpg Size: 14778 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100813/cedeea1a/attachment-0001.jpg>
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