Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Announcement for those interested in small shop techniques.

Hello everyone - I just wanted to drop a note to anyone who is either interested in small shop procedures or in the process of building and equipping a piano shop of their own. If you would like to be notified of new technical articles available on the Schaff webstore when they are first introduced, please be sure to sign up for the email newsletter offered on the Schaff Home Page . You will then receive notification of new articles when they go online. This notification may be tied in with promotional offers on tools and supplies featured in the articles. These promos, when offered, will be for a limited amount of time, so be sure to check announcements when they come online. Check the content of the new articles as well (they may be downloaded at no charge), to see what tools and supplies are featured. You'll be surprised at times by the unexpected tools that show up for procedures discussed. I'm always looking interesting new ways to put traditional tools to use.

An announcement for two new articles, plus a promotional deal for all tools and supplies featured in those articles, is scheduled to be sent out this coming Monday (8/30/10). The promotion will end on Friday. If you miss that announcement because you are not yet registered for the newsletter, please email me privately behmpiano@gmail.com and I will forward the announcement to you Monday evening when I get home from tuning. If you will then get signed up, you should start receiving announcements, shop tips, and other interesting features articles as they are sent out.

The emails I've received personally from technicians around the world indicate to me that there is a lot of interest in shop building and in diversification of one's business. I strongly believe that the more one branches out with his or her business, the surer the footing that business will have. I hope that my efforts in sharing my limited storehouse of experiences via the articles I write is a help to some of you who are starting out, and also to those experienced technicians who are interested in learning a new trick or two. Best wishes all. Chuck Behm

Thank you, Chuck. Your tips and articles are very appreciated.

Hello Chuck

Thank you for the update!

Thank you very much for the articles you have written and are writing. They are very well written and I also enjoy the business aspect/reasoning for the particular job being done. It helps one understand and think through why one is and should be doing a particular aspect of piano restoration.

Your articles are a reminder that good quality piano restoration is rewarding and in more ways than one.

Best regards

FYI - If any of you who are in the process of putting together a shop are interested in purchasing a shop repair truck (tilter), that is one of the tools featured in one of the two news article now online - the one titled "Upright Pedal Mechanism Transformations."

I have 2 repair trucks in my shop, and usually they are both in use. It's a tool that I wouldn't consider running a restoration shop without.

Anyway, it's a good opportunity to equip your shop with a tool that will last a lifetime.

If you would like to review the new articles follow these directions: Once you open the announcement from Schaff, click on the "Visit Schaff's Webstore Now," which is in blue at the bottom of the page, to go to the website. Next, click "Webstore" on top right corner on the menu bar, and then click on the "Tool and Procedure Handbook," box on the istore landing page. The thumbnails that come up show the articles available. Scroll down to the bottom of the list to find the "Upright Pedal Mechanism Transformations" and "Installing Tuning Pin Bushings" articles.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new articles. The prices listed in the catalog right now for the tools and supplies featured in both articles have the 10% discount taken off. After Friday, they will revert back to normal. Chuck

Your work is the highest quality, Chuck, and the pictures are wonderful. Thanks for sharing them.

--Cy--

Gorgeous article Chuck! (as usual!)

Your contributions to our craft will be felt for generations!

My only critique of your pedal article is that using dowels to plug the holes in the bottom board means that you will be putting screws into end grain which tends to be prone to stripping out. Using a hardwood plug would be better so that the screw will go into side grain.

Thank you Mr. Behm, I have received your articles by e mail, and I am running to read them immediately.

This is an excellent suggestion, Ryan. I'll stock up on hardwood plugs next time I'm in the Woodsmith store. The next time I do the procedure, I'll take new pictures and revise the article. I'll be sure to mention your name. Thanks, Chuck

Actually, if I have access to the bottom of the piano, I would probably use t-nuts and machine screws.

For the other article, to remove tuning pin bushings, I have a 5/16" dowel which is turned (carved, actually) down to a bit less than 1/4" at the end to fit in the holes. That way it becomes self-aligning.

I should also say that it is not necessary, nor even desirable to ream the holes in the bushings to the size of a tuning pin drill. If you do, it may leave some space where the hole in the bushing does not align with the hole in the pin block. A 1/4" drill bit is adequate, as the grain of the bushing will compress more than that of the pin block.

hi,where i can find the "Installing Tuning Pin Bushings" articles?
or somebody can help forward to my mail... thanks

Very good point. We've got a new pin block job (a Wegman grand) out in the shop right now. Just tapped the bushings out yesterday, so too late to try your tapered dowel idea. But I will try drilling with a 1/4" drill instead of the pin size, to see how it comes out. Thanks for the suggestion. Chuck

Chuck,

Thanks for your lasting contribution to the well-being of this business!

The dowel is not tapered, it is stepped down at the end. I take it this is not a Wegman with a metal pin block.

Really, hardwood plugs are not the correct thing either, because they are tapered. The most correct thing would be hardwood tenons, which you may need to have custom made. (Think key lead hole plugs.)


I like BDBs idea of using Tee-nuts and machine screws best.

No, it has size 2 pins, 2 1/4" long, driven into an 1 1/4" pinblock. When I went to look at the piano, I was assuming it was the same as other Wegmans I had seen, but it wasn't. Loose pins in an ordinary pinblock with loose laminations.

We've got the new maple pinblock fitted, ready to drill (we drill it on a drill press outside the piano) - just working on refinishing the soundboard and inside of the rim. When it comes time to install new bushings I'll give the 1/4" drill a try. I'm also considering trying the double drilling technique for the pinblock to see if I like that better than the single pass that we ordinarily do.

There's always new things to try. Sometimes you try something new, and come out better, sometimes you don't, but you don't know until you try. Chuck

I just signed up for the Schaff newsletters and Chuck's technical articles, and I gotta say, even if you don't do this work, the photography and attention to clarity and detail really make these photo-essays worth reading. I emailed Chuck as per his original post, he replied right away, and all I had to do was click on a link in his email. Within seconds I was well on the way to spending an hour and a half at the computer!

I bought a set of plug cutters from Grizzley a while back. They come in handy for this kind of thing. You can make them out of whatever material and grain orientation you want. They aren't tapered.

Yep, Gizzly's where I got my plug, actually tenon, cutter too. (It's within driving distance!) I just noticed that McFeely's has straight plug, not tenon, cutters.

Thanks, Ryan and Jeff for the input. I'll be in a Woodsmith store today getting some new blades for my bandsaw. I'll check into what they have there.

To be honest, I never even thought about the importance of the direction of the grain in the dowel inserts, but I can see your point. A screw driven into the end grain of a board certainly wouldn't hold as well as one driven into the side of the board.

As always,I'm glad to hear suggestions. I write about the way I do things, but would never claim that my way is the best or the only way. It's just the way I know. Chuck