130 Year Old Piano Rebuild - Part 10 - Key Rail Pins

In this video in my series on restoring a 1890 Ivers & Pond upright piano, I install new balance rail pins and front rail pins. I had the help of my daughters for part of it. I made some tools out of scrap wood for aligning the pins and driving them to the correct depth. I also had to drill out the front rail pin holes for the larger size of the modern pins. As you will see in the video, I made a mistake early on with the front rail pins by not drilling them out. I had some issues with cracking on the front rail from driving in the new pins. I ended up using a #19 sized drill bit for the new pins, and it worked out nicely.

[@wblynch]

Those new pins look great. Much easier than polishing all the old pins like I went through

[@myantiquepiano9345]

It was a lot easier than polishing all the pins. Plus, some of the old front rail pins were pitted and I never would have been able to get them smooth again. It was pretty easy to install all these once I got the right drill bit size for the new front rail pins.

[@wblynch]

@@myantiquepiano9345 - don’t forget to align those front pins. If they’re twisted a little bit it will create unwanted friction on the bushings

[@susank4878]

Too bad I found this series so late. The critical size is the diameter of the key pins.

[@susank4878]

Often the key pins need to be slightly angled, not nice and straight. See how they look when you put the keys on them. The top of the key pin should have freedom at either end of the key stroke.