Pianotech

A customer called to say one of the pedals in his Yamaha upright was no longer working. He had opened up the bottom and described what he saw. I knew that little plastic insert that goes into the end of the metal tube connecting rod had broken. Not a big deal, but he was unwilling to pay me for a minimum service call, or wait until next tuning to have it taken care of. I pointed him to Pacific Piano Supply but they would not sell him less than a bag full of them. Later, he's grumbling about this to his son and he shows him the part. The son took the part home, drew up the specs on it and printed out several of them for him to use. What a great inventive solution, I thought. Several months later, when I show up for next tuning, I see the new printed part in place and am very impressed in all but one thing. I don't know what kind of plastic the son used but it was already crumbling apart. Much like the old plastic elbows on spinets. Since he had several I just replaced the crumbling one with one of the extras his son had printed and  told him I would ask, here, what material should he use to print out the next batch. And so, that's what I'm doing.