LATEST UPDATE OF THIS PAGE: 716/06

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Making a new leg for a spinet piano

A colleague-technician asked us to look at a spinet piano with a missing front leg. Could we make a copy of the good leg and install it? This project gave us an opportunity to purchase a lathe. We found a bench lathe with an extension that permitted turning wood pieces up to 36" long, and selected appropriate chisels. We assembled the lathe on our workbench and laminated two pieces of maple of different thicknesses with Bolduc wood glue. One piece was about 2" thick and the other was about 1" thick, so that the center holes to be drilled in the two ends would go through solid wood.

 

A – We made a 24"-long guide that could be bolted onto the lathe assembly. Then we laminated together two pieces of maple using Bolduc wood glue (see block under the leg being copied). In this picture, the new leg is taking form--we still need to reduce the diameter of the narrow portion of the leg and cut off the excess at the bottom end.

 

B – We drilled holes at each end of the new leg and installed a leg nut at one end and a small caster at the other. We experimented with various colors and types of stain to achieve a close color match.

C – We applied brush-on lacquer. When dry, our new leg is ready to be installed.