Chickering grand brass flanges

[Yardbird47@aol.com]

Good news on the Chickering action parts:

<<1.  Does the obsolete design create a repair barrier, or has anyone shimmed
up the hammer rail and converted to the modern design?>>
Chickering had many designs, as Newton Hunt pointed out, two of which were
the steel rod inlay in the hammer rail, into which the hammer flange machine
screws turn, and the j-shaped brass hammer flange with butt plate attatched.
Sometimes the steel rod and j-flange were used together, sometimes a
conventional wooden flange was screwed to a  steel rod. In either case, the
steel rod will pose no problem, except that flanges being tightened down want
to twist more with the with the machine bolt and steel rod combo, than with
the conventional wooden version. The j-flange easily matches one of the
Pratt,Read styles and the hammershank will too, so replacing worn parts is no
sweat.
Ask me sometime about the Chickering 123 (ca. WW1) whose brass hammer and rep
flanges I replaced with a set of Clemson action brackets, my own desing of
wooden rails, a set of Japanese shanks and Aeolean reps. My only mistake was
putting on Renner Gross 5 hammers. David Hagberg RPT has done alot of
Chickering work.

<<The drop screws ...do not turn down currently -- is there a ridiculous
twist here?>>
Do a quick thermal (and local) expansion of the parts with your favorite heat
source (butane torch, soldering iron, alc lamp, or match stick), and they
should turn. Also check with Barb Richardson to see if she's still faxing out
the 2 oz. samples of Marvel Mystery Oil.

Good Luck. (As luck would have it, I'm currently rebuilding a 1907 Quarter
(2-bit) grand. I think it was the product of a bet going in the engineering
dept that a grand piano had to be more than 52" wide.

Bill Ballard RPT     "I gotta go ta woik...."
NH Chapter         Ian Shoales, Duck's Breath M. Theater