> Subject: RE: Measurements Kawai please > Date: Sat, 7 Jun 97 00:04:31 -0000 > From: Antares <antares@EURONET.NL> > To: "PIANOTECH LIST" <pianotech@ptg.org> > Reply-to: pianotech@ptg.org Antares, 57 to 60 grams is pretty heavy for downweight. Measure your downweight and upweight and divide the difference by 2 to get your friction reading. I believe around 15 grams is normal. If I have a piano with plenty of upweight, i.e. high 20s to 30+ I will typically remove weight from the hammers if possible. Kawai's usually have plenty of dead weight. 5 to 1 ratio! Remove 2 grams and you've got about a 50 gram downweight. This work will decrease your upweight. 20 grams upweight is barely enough to keep the key under the pianist's fingers. I use a 1" belt sander and do each hammer assembly by hand and eye. Remove it, trim it and reinstall. This way I don't have too much aligning to do. ilvey Pacifica, CA > Don Manino wrote: > > >210cm is the R-1 model. > > > >As you noticed, the action spread is not adjustable on this piano and as > >such Kawai does not publish an official specification for it. By my > >measurement it is 113mm. > > > >The factory touchweight specification is nominally 57 grams for this model, > >so a range of 57 - 60 grams is not unreasonable. > > > >An increase that is larger in the bass may indicate that the rollers > >(knuckles) are beginning to wear. Check the shape carefully, bolster if > >necessary, bush the roller skin and lubricate with teflon powder. Then > >re-measure your touch weight. > > > >The key height for this model is ~67mm. > > > >Regarding your other service, I was wondering; Did you measure high > >friction in the action centers? You might want to re-think your application > >of lubricants here - if the centers are tight, repinning is preferable to > >lubricating. If you did not measure tight centers, lubricating should be > >unnecessary. > > > >Kawai America does not normally recommend lubricants in the action centers. > >Especially petroleum based lubricants are very harmful. You mentioned CLP, > >which is a sort of generic name for me, not indicating what it is made of, > >but if it is petroleum based it will damage the action. > > > >Kawai Japan sometimes recommends a light application of silicone lubricant, > >but this should not be applied without cause. > > > >McLube on the keypins may also increase wear of the key bushings. Plain > >Teflon powder (such as TFL-50, which does not have the base coating > >material) is a little better for this application. > > > >For more information in your part of the world I would suggest you contact > >Kawai Europe: > > 101233.2767@compuserve.com > > > >They may have slightly different service recommendations than Kawai > >America. > > > >Don Mannino RPT, Manager > >Kawai Piano Technical Support, U.S. and Canada > >(Don_Mannino@compuserve.com or DonMannino@worldnet.att.net) > > Antares writes back: > > Thank you Mr Manino for your explaination...Since the instrument I > described is only 5 years old, and since the owner does not play it very > much (maybe 30-45 minutes a day), the action is in a relatively good > state. The rollers are not worn really and from the stringmarks on the > hammers, one can tell that the instrument has not been played very much. > The only thing I noticed, was that the centerpins were just a bit slow, > due to humidity. > If I say CLP, I mean Protek CLP, highly reccomended earlier on the list > for lubricating centerpins. > Anyway, these centerpins do not go slow enough for repinning, and the > lubricant made the downweight "measurable". > As I understand from your words, the downweight of this type of Kawai is > almost 60 grams, so...now I know that this is the standard meant for this > instrument, and I will inform my customer of this. > I was just wondering why nothing helped to make it lighter. > > Thank you for your words of advice. > > Antares > > ilvey Pacifica, CA ilvey@a.crl.com
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC