Dear Jim; We had a dealer locally who sold russian pianos for a while under a dutch name. As their tuner is not a tech I'm occasionally called in for tech assistance. Keys had to be eased and some front rail pins moved. What I discovered was that the keyframe had the density of cheesecake. Front rail and balance rail would crush/splinter at the least disturbance. Keys were also soft and frail, causing the "sticking" and warping in the first place. I suspect a pandora's box. Nancy Salmon RPT Frostburg State University, Maryland On Jan 16, 2008 12:06 AM, Jim Harvey <harvey.pianotech at gmail.com> wrote: > This is not a CAUT matter, but I'd like to request some options OTHER > than my first couple of instincts -- those include landfill and > marshmallow roast. > > The "piano" (being overly generous) is a J Becker. Means nothing? > Okay, an approximately 10-year old Russian-made studio. First service > call, touch resistance was like that of a kitchen table. Did not > explore causes at the time. Second call followed a visit by the > grand-children, who reportedly "broke something". > > Enter Harvey, thinking broken keystick, jack saddle, or other. NOT. > One of the capstans was sheared off level with the keystick. More > investigation revealed that capstans are 1) non-standard size, > requiring a crescent wrench on the shoulder; 2) are pot metal, > complete with casting seam lines; 3) threading on screw portion are > course thread -- wood screw style; 4) screw body seems to be thinnest > at point of entry in keys. > > Even on the first call, before this experience, I had planted seeds > for a replacement piano, despite its short service life. Not sure at > the moment whether that option will be taken. You see where this is > going... > > I'm not unfamiliar with pot metal capstans, but other times I could > remove them. I can likely find appropriate replacement capstans, do > any necessary plugging and drilling, and so forth. It's dealing with > an entire set of potentially sheared off stubs that's the problem. How > can I be sure of the potential? On the obviously broken one, the > homeowner, an accomplished word-worker who builds grandfather clocks, > was going to attempt removing the stub. After he left for his shop, I > discovered the pot metal, stopped his pursuits, and let HIM try to > unscrew another capstan. It snapped off. > > A chapter member suggested killing off (breaking) the existing > capstans, and starting a line of new capstans adjacent to the old. I > don't know whether this would work, and if so, whether it might make > the touch weight even worse. I thought of nuking the existing caps > with a soldering iron, even at the expense of charring the wood, to > help removal. Somehow through all of this, I keep envisioning the > metal equivalent of a plug cutter for wood, but don't think such a > thing exists. > > Any similar experiences/solutions out there, or am I just over-reacting? > > -- > Jim Harvey, RPT > <harvey.pianotech at gmail.com> > <www.harveypiano.com> > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20080116/9771e3cd/attachment.html
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