Jim, The best approach is to leave the agraffes in the plate - loosen slightly before spaying -- then install new agraffes after spraying. Understand that an ingredient to good tone is a clean, well defined termination of the string, and the new agraffe will provide you with that improved termination. If it isn't possible to obtain replacement agraffes -- a rare occasion -- then remove the agraffes after spraying and clean them with a solvent. Roger Gable -----Original Message----- From: Jim Ialeggio Sent: Monday, August 20, 2012 1:03 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: [pianotech] More agraffes...kind'a In the past, when refinishing a plate, I've had trouble with finish build-up in the agraffe couterbore bottom and sides. The buildup then was pulled along as the agraffe was tightened, sometime bringing surface finish with it, restulting in chips and other nasties. I've tried placing finish washers in the counterbore, held in by the weight of a screw, but I'm not happy with this, as it bonds the finish washer to the counterbore sides, creating chipping problems of its own, though less than no finish washer. Ideally, I'd cut a small bevel on the counterbore sides, and then not worry about masking the countebores, but in playing with this, I don't have a countersink remotely shallow enough to do the trick in such a shallow counterbore. Any thoughts on other ways to approach this easily? Jim Ialeggio -- Jim Ialeggio jim at grandpianosolutions.com 978 425-9026 Shirley Center, MA
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