Stieff Rebuild – Leg Plates

The piano was prepared for its trip to the refinishing shop. It's there now. I anticipate its return late in August. New Wessel Nickel and Gross leg plates were installed. This makes the piano more predictable for movers, and certainly safer for everyone. One of the original leg plates was broken.

Some photos of interest:

The router jig that I used with a straight cutting bit to cut out the recess for the new leg plate. WNG sells a nice template and bit system using a top guided router bit. Not wanting to invest, I worked a little harder.

Leg plate and case plate installed. The old hardware is displayed alongside the new. Stieff used an unusual cast iron plate that twists on. On the right, note that one of those castings had broken some time in the past. The new plate diameter is a quarter inch smaller than the old. After this photo was taken, I filled the gap with epoxy.

Installed.

Cleaned up the inner rim, paring away old soundboard residue