I cap my quarter-sawn maple pinblocks with Delignit (either their bridge-cap material or their pinblock stock – your choice). Caps can be made to your specified thickness. This provides two advantages over conventional pinblock construction. First, because of its hardness, the cap helps to prevent flexure of the tuning pins under lateral tension on pianos without plate bushings (and on many with plate bushings as the bushings otherwise crush). Second, Delignit exhibits minimal expansion and contraction with humidity changes, so it is more stable. This is especially true in grand installations, where pinblocks are not as easily protected by humidity-control systems. All these benefits of the dense European Beech block, yet my blocks still retain the unique feel of the several-layer quarter-sawn hard maple block.
|
Here, the pinblock laminates are being cut with a bandsaw.
Next, the laminates are prepped, prior to epoxy bonding.
The pinblock laminae and Delignit cap are epoxy-bonded together. After cure and trimming, the block is ready for shaping.
Please contact me to discuss how Farrell Piano can craft a duplicate pinblock for your restoration project.
