[pianotech] composite pinblock- Drill bit size

[William Truitt]

I can just hear the tuner who comes in behind you.  "What a shlub this guy
is, he put in a cheap0 mahogany pinblock!!!"

Will Truitt

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Terry Farrell
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 12:17 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] composite pinblock- Drill bit size

IMHO Ron Nossaman's advice on drilling a bunch of test holes is spot on - I
always do that with every block. The first time you drill a different type
of block you'll be drilling more test holes. Drill bits get dull, drill
chucks have different amounts of run-out, different techs will use different
feed rates, etc., etc.

If you are doing an open pinblock, are you putting a nice veneer of hard
hardwood on the upper face? You can really make that area pretty if you do.

Below is a picture of an open pinblock made of multilam maple, an 8 mm
Delignit pinblock cap and about a 1 mm veneer of some a South American
tropical hardwood called Jatoba. Jatoba looks a lot like mahogany (that's
what the piano case was) and is extremely hard (figured that would work well
on the pinblock top. Jatoba has a Janka hardness rating of 2350 - whereas
hard maple has a janka hardness rating of 1450.