I have a couple West Marine store near me that carry West System epoxy products. If they have what I want, I just buy from there. When they don't I order online direct from West System. Terry Farrell On Apr 1, 2010, at 8:51 PM, Dean May wrote: > Where do you like to buy your West System? There are no dealers > close by to me. > > Dean > > Dean W May (812) 235-5272 > > PianoRebuilders.com (888) DEAN-MAY > > Terre Haute IN 47802 > > From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] > On Behalf Of Terry Farrell > Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 5:26 PM > To: pianotech at ptg.org > Subject: Re: [pianotech] pin block inserts > > Hi Dean. Cut the inserts out to fit easily into the cut-outs - don't > worry about a perfect fit - you'll be using a good gap-filling high- > strength epoxy anyway. Even if there are quarter-inch gaps here and > there, no big deal. I'm not sure I understand the method of cutting > you describe below, but it appears you routed out the pinblock cut- > outs. Epoxy makes a mechanical bond with wood, so any roughening of > the surface you can will be good. If you are applying thin epoxy > resin to the wood, it would probably soak in enough that roughening > wouldn't matter - but since we don't really know how far it will > soak in, absolutely, IMHO, it would be a good idea to roughen the > wood bonding surface. I cut my pinblock cut-outs with a saws-all saw > - so it left me a nice rough surface anyway. > > Because of the stresses that will be applied to your pinblock, and > the relatively small bonding surface area you will have, you really > want to make sure you make the best epoxy bond possible. I used the > West System Two-Step Bonding Method, which I strongly suggest is the > best way to do this job. http://www.westsystem.com/ss/bonding-gluing-clamping/ > > Another good way to work thin epoxy into a surface that doesn't soak > up much this epoxy (this is how West System recommends bonding > metal), is described about half way down this page - point #3 http://www.westsystem.com/ss/bonding-hardware/ > Basically, they recommend sanding (with very coarse paper) the > thin epoxy into any non-porous surface to be bonded. I've even had > very good results using this method when I wanted to bond a plastic > pipe to something - and we all know that epoxy won't bond to plastic > - or at least we thought it wouldn't! > > After wetting out the two surfaces, I highly recommend using West > System #404 High Density filler - it is their highest strength filler. > > The method I used to align the inserts to the cut-outs was to first, > make sure my inserts are the same thickness as the block. Then I > used my pinblock jack (the thing you support the pinblock with when > driving tuning pins into the block), with a piece of flat plywood > (larger than your cut-out) on top of it and a piece of plastic on > top of that. Put it under the cut-out, snug it up to the bottom of > the block, and now you have an automatic insert leveling system and > also something to prevent any low-viscosity epoxy from oozing out > from the bonding area. > > Hope this helps. The last piano I used this method on I tune every > few months - and it holds it's tunings wonderfully. > > Terry Farrell > > On Mar 30, 2010, at 10:16 AM, Dean May wrote: > > > This is the pin block from the piano tear down I just posted > pictures of. It is a rather complex shape with several different > levels- beyond my meager woodworking skills to duplicate. I could > have used plugs but borrowing from Terry Farrell, I decided to > router out the pin fields. I drew boxes around 3 pin field areas- > the two in the treble happened to come out so I could make them the > same size. I then transferred the dimensions of those boxes to a > piece of OSB board. I then drew a box 2.75” bigger all the way > around (6” router base, 1/2" cutting bit) and cut out the big box to > make my pattern. Since I was able to make the two treble cutouts the > same, I only had to make two patterns. Today I am going to a big > woodworking shop owned by a friend and I intend to cut out the > inserts on a good band saw. > > I plan on epoxying the inserts into place. I was wondering if > scoring the surfaces with a coarse rasp file, instead of leaving > them smooth, might give the epoxy better surfaces to bond. > > Dean W May (812) 235-5272 > PianoRebuilders.com (888) DEAN-MAY > > Terre Haute IN 47802 > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100331/1474dd6c/attachment.htm>
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