hamermaker's corner 4.

[isaacah]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
Ari Isaac=20



Hammermaker's corner4.



I had used the services of a small machine shop to make some parts for =
my bass string machinery. The owner, the only man working in the small, =
poorrly lit shop, looked like he had grown into his lathes and milling =
machines. A serious man he did excellent work but, as I was to discover =
presently, he only made what he could read on drawings. This was =
unfortunate because Dave, the machinist who had come down to Ronson with =
me, had made his elaborate drawings on a pocket notepad. I wanted to do =
something evil to him but as he hadn't charged me very much for =
accompanying me I had to find another outlet for my frustration.=20

We decided to build the frame of the hammer press out of railway =
carriage building steel channel, a very strong 4' channel deep welded at =
the corners with a special welding machine. The bed, the platform =
against which the downward pressure goes, was to be 1.5' thick as were =
to be the side plates, the ones pushing the felt from the shoulders down =
to the wood molding. To push the side plates we used socket head screws =
1' in diameter. I still have one of those and they are monsters, about =
7' long. To turn those mothers I purchased a Snapon =BE' socket drive. =
It came with a handle that was a hefty bar about 24' long and it packed =
a lot of power.

While the press was being built I called around about getting my felt. =
The company who had, to my ears at the time, the most magic name in =
hammer felt was one called Royal George. Its real name was Murray =
Whitehead and it is in England. When I told them what I wanted, how I =
wanted my felt constructed they replied, with the appropriate British =
accent,=20

"We make fine hammer felt". The answer was much the same when I asked =
about the wool blend; fiber diameter, density and density graduation =
along the sheet of felt. About sheet weight they were prepared to allow =
that they made a few different weights of hammer felt sheets and here I =
had a choice.

When it came to how many sheets I had to buy for them to even bother =
filling my order - the quantitee, for me at that time was astronomical. =
I couldn't visualize ever making that many sets of hammers. This was the =
first wakeup call to the real world, there were to be many.

The felt Whitehead made at that time was excellent. When it arrived, =
after two months and when, about the same time, the press arrived and =
was set up the big moment was at hand. I was to make my first set of =
hammers. I had a lot more excitement than knowledge or understanding and =
I couldn't wait to see the hammers taking shape right there, by my own =
hands

I had spent a year working on the hammer project and a lot of money. The =
press, well, it never worked. I couldn't believe it when, after two or =
three tries the press was bent out of shape. It was not the frame, it =
held. The side plates, 1.5 inches thick steel was actually bent by the =
resistance of the felt being pushed towards the molding. My disbelief =
was profound and my disappointment. I wanted to climb the wall, it was =
simply not possible for that thick steel plate, one I could never lift =
because of its weight, to bend like that.. but that's precisely what =
happened. Cursing, as I discovered very quickly, wasn't enough to fix =
the problem.

The press had to be junked. We took it all apart and returned the frame =
to the machine shop. The steel parts, clamps, blocks, screws, stayed in =
my shop till I could get over my disappointment over my own failure =
enough to dispose of them.=20

Now I learned my first real lesson about hammer making. It was a =
difficult one and I had to learn it over and over - I had to research =
and fully understand every minute part of everything to do with hammers =
before I could successfully make even one set of hammers. Every inch =
along the bass-treble axis of the felt sheet was different. The geometry =
of the individual felt strip which would become the set of hammers had =
to be precisely worked. Every aspect of a hammer press, one to do what I =
wanted, had to be researched, drawn up, researched again and precisely =
understood before it could be built. After being built, like every =
special machine, it would have to be debugged. I began to realize that =
to make the kind of hammer I had in mind, the hammer press I would need =
to have built would be unlike any I had seen and, I suspect, unlike any =
in the industry. Copying was out of the question.     Back to the =
drawing board, hell, back to crawling.=20


---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/5e/1d/37/2d/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--