Hi Dave,
1. It may take a few tries but drill a hole in some round rod. Heat it up with a torch and smack it until it's oblong. It it's a good fit, case harden it with salamoniac found at welding supply houses. Weld that to another piece of rod stock and you're off to the call with a tuning lever.
2. take a tuning tip, and fill it with epoxy. Grease an oblong harpsichord tuning pin and slip it in the epoxy filled tip before the glue hardens. Once the glue hardens remove the tip and you have a one time usage tuning lever tip. Be gentle. The epoxy may not hold up very well. Harpsichord t-pins aren't held as tight as pianos.
3. You're not able to pull this stuff out of thin air. Tell the customer you need more lead time for such a request. Oh wait, there's an aerosol that tunes harpsichords. Just spray it on and ............
4. Amazon Prime.
5. Drill two holes in some flat bar. Space them just far enough apart that you can connect the two together using a cut off disk with a Dremel. With the appropriate size you should end up with an oblong hole. Repeat that a few more times on a few more pieces of flat bar. Match the holes using the tuning pin as an index and bend it all to accommodate the clearances you need. Glue or bolt them all together and use some grey duct tape to soften up the user interface end of it so your hand doesn't get raw. Wear a red and green flannel shirt for the call and pretend you're from the Republic of Maine.
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Larry Fisher
Owner, Chief Grunt, Head Hosehead
Vancouver WA
360-256-2999
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-10-2019 20:07
From: Dave Foster
Subject: Need a Harpsichord wrench idea
I've been asked to tune a Harpsichord for a local school in the next couple days, and it has oblong pins. I have a square wrench, but nothing that will fit the oblong pins. Obviously I can order a new wrench, which I will do, but I won't have it before the tuning is needed.
Is there something I can rig up that will work? Has anyone found a local pick-up tool that will fit the oblong pins? Maybe a certain size socket?
I have an agraffe wrench that I will play with modifying in the meantime.
Any thoughts would help.
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Dave Foster, RPT
Waterford MI
248-431-8804
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