Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Tuning pins hard to turn, jumping many cents.

Well it's MUCH easier with the big tuning hammer. Also the tuning pins ruined my cheap wrench bits lol

The piano is still in tune. I think all is well now. As mentioned it is a very cheap piano, not worth spending the money on having tuned by a professional.

https://youtu.be/bbZCgrAdJBU

The humid piano is annoying.
Click jumping many cent..

Picking Packing clicking !

What should i do、、

Wow, this one is even worse than mine!

I'm a complete beginner so nothing i say counts for anything. All i did was put a tiny bit of WD40 on any friction point and sort of just reworked in the pins. I don't think any of that made a difference though. It really came down to me understanding how these pins were going to behave and to adapt to it.

Socket wrench, wd40 and a YouTube tuning video.

The perfect disaster waiting to happen. I am sorry to inform you, but you are a technician’s worst nightmare..

And yet i've pitch raised and restrung a piano without ever even having looked inside one before lol

Next i'll be adjusting the "spoons", "hammer blow distance" and "voicing" the piano. Wish me luck!

James I had this exact problem and was nervous about coming on this section of the forum at the time . Now that it has had time (well over a year ) to be evaluated I can recommend the following . The piano was in a good environment and not especially old . My tuner gentleman got very frustrated with it .
The cure for my piano was to slacken the offending strings by a 180 degree turn . ( One at a time .)Then rotate the pin a further 180 degrees and back again. Not rapidly. Just a steady turn in 2 or 3 seconds .When it keeps on squealing and being noisy ----keep on going till it stops .
I had about 8 or 9 of these cracking sticking pins and now there is no problem with any of them . The slackening to begin this will upset the paired up strings . Is that the phrase used ? That has to be sorted out afterwards .
But since I cured this it has stayed in tune very well and responds in a perfectly normal way .
I was surprised how many times the pins had to be rotated . Some well over 50 times . True .

IF the tuning pins have enough torque: Put Protek CLP on the understring felt where it touches the strings. This will help break up the rust and make the strings slide smoothly along the felt, instead of jumping. It is not a permanent fix, you will probably have to do this every time you tune.

If the tuning pins do not have much torque, this is very risky -- in that case, the excessive friction at the understring felt may be the last thing keeping the pitch stable.

Yesterday,i found some rusty spots occur at the bass part near the coil.
so i sink my swab into WD40 and wipe the rusty spots with it.
I used 4 of swabs in total,after i finish ,i was anxious to
find it leaks into the wood bushing
...

i googled the negative effect of WD40.and i realized i might totally ruined my piano, i believe i m dumb.:(

Now,i see that bushing polluted definately half of it goes darker looking.


And today while i tried to tune that pin to testify if i can hold the tune.
Yes,it is.
but i feels easier to rotate using my tuning hammer, i mean i could use less force to make it settle to the right pitch.

So my guess is it because i the WD 40 has make it smooth "enough"?
maybe i m allergic?wow

Some guys in forum say the situations might go worse for WD40 treament,because it is just a horror .

Get the two books that were suggested. And proper tools. And proper lubes once you know what, where, and how to use them. Even the good YouTube posts are not adequate for real work.

Ratchet wrenches, wd40, YouTube... I cry for that piano

I feel for the piano owner! C'mon, guys. We all know what it's like to think you are doing the right thing and then find out it was faaaar from it.

plz ,i need some to answer my question,plz

Replace the 100+ year old agraffes.

Could you restate the question you wan't answered clearly please?

hello friend,nice to meet you.
i mean during the rust removing process where i operate it near the tuning pin.
i was using WD40 with swab,not very carefully.It contacted with the pin bushing,then the liquid slightly goes inside.
now i can see its darker looking than the other half side of that pin bushing.
i dont know how much it leaks into.
mostly likely is less than 1 drop.
juat a little.

somebody told me then WD40 is some kind of penetrating oil,never settle down!
So i m eager to know if my piano will be ok.
Tell me what u think,ty.
best regards
,Harry

What anybody thinks will happen to the piano is irrelevant. The piano will tell you whether it is okay or not.

Well the WD40 is on there now so you can only wait and see. Keep a watch on it to see if it holds tune. Chances are it isn’t permanently harmed but none of us can know.

If it turns out that it won’t hold tune, all is not lost. If needed, the hole can be cleaned and a new larger tuning pin be put in that should hold. Leave the remedy to a professional with the proper experience and tools.

If this happened to one of my customers I would:

Slap the customer on the wrist with a temperament strip
Remove the string coil from the pin
Remove the pin
Remove the bushing
Clean the string coil and plate with acetone
Replace the bushing
Install the next size larger pin
Replace the string coil on the pin
Bring it up to pitch

If they choose to do this themselves, I would suggest they find someone else to service their piano in the future.

yep,i agreed.

I have little knowledge in tuning.With the help of my software,it shows everything is fine on that pin at present.

like you said,keep an watch.

So what is the exact time to wait for ?
maybe 1 week 1 month or 1 season etc?

After that ,Can i make a conclusion that my piano is fine ,then.haha
(I know some of you may laugh at me, we are talking about my piano in virtual.
but i do care for it ,coz it is new one.it is okay now,but i want to know what time it would be to test that pin in the future.
based on your experience, if possible give me some hint,haha)

thanks

Howdy,
Thank you for the steps you mentioned.

But i do hope these would never be a treatment to my piano,lol.