Sorry if this appears several times- slight mix up with the to and from
addresses
Ian Lawther wrote:
> One of the springs on my chanter has become very weak and is, I fear,
about to break. I have the choice of returning it to the maker for
respringing (a trans Atlantic posting job), getting a maker here in the
US to do it (a couple of options - more if I consider other local folk
woodwind makers) or trying to do it myself.........
You could try work-hardening the spring by bending it forward and back a
number of times with very fine pliers. Of course, this may have an
unwished-for side effect!
>
> In considering doing it myself I have "Cocks and Bryan" and Mike
Nelson's website as guides but both are aimed at making keys not
refitting them. Mine is chrome plated and I don't particularly want to
drill through to put a new rivet in. How do people usually do it....is
it feasible to use the stub of the original rivet to mount the spring?
You will need to file/grind the head off the original rivet so there
won't be enough left to use for the new spring (in my experience). Ray
Sloan used to use a tiny screw but presumably his keys were thick enough
at the attachment point, I have never done that. I think you're going to
have to drill through the key for a new rivet. A nickel-silver rivet
may be unobtrusive as Francis says but the chrome plating is very
brittle and will probably crack around the drill hole. You can get the
key re-plated but if it is a very fine fit in the slot the extra
thickness may cause binding. The key head can of course be polished
smooth without re-plating.
If the plating has cracked on the spring, that would possibly explain
the weakness BTW. We gave up using nickel or chrome mainly for that
reason, we now just offer silver.
Cheers
Richard
--
Richard Evans
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