Bridge Work

Today was bridge work day. No, I wasn't at the dentist. I was beginning the process of installing new caps to two piano's bridges. The old bridge pins have been removed, and a pattern is made to recreate the old bridge pin lay out after the new cap is glued to the bridge body. Thin Lexan is used as a pattern material. It is placed on top of the old bridge cap and indexing holes are drilled through the Lexan and through the bridge cap and bridge body. The blank patterns are attached to the old bridges with bridge pins. An awl is then used to mark the locations on all the empty bridge pin holes. The patterns are completed by drilling a hole through the pattern at every bridge pin location. After the patterns are completed, and the thickness of the original bridges are recorded, the old caps are removed with the bandsaw. The old bridge pin holes are plugged with small dowels and glue. After the glue has sufficient time to dry, the bridge body will be planed to receive the new caps.