Zimmerman flanges

[Richard Moody]

Ron
	Try "wetting the action" a term I heard a couple of old timers refer to
the application of alcohol water to the felt bushings of tight centers,
then drying by heat.  If this does not work, nothing will.  Well
repinning, but you have to go up a size, and even if you don't there is
lots of reaming and lots of fitting and testing, and lots of burnishing
and testing again.  
I have an unproven hypothesis, but it does make sense, whoever invented
the felt bushing for piano center pins also knew how to shrink them by
wetting.  Other wise we would still have parchement hinges.  

Richard Moody  

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> From: Ron Berry <ronberry@iquest.net>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Zimmerman flanges
> Date: Wednesday, July 29, 1998 11:31 AM
> 
> I ran into a Zimmerman studio upright with plastic flanges.  The 
> pinning is so tight that is now ceases to work.  I have repinned a few 
> over the past several years.  Now the problem is with most all the 
> flanges.  The action says  Pianic  on it and is a Schwander type 
> action.  My question is whether anyone knows if this is a problem 
> with the plastic material growing like some of the old plastics did.  
> This is a 10 year old piano so the plastic is a modern type.  It looks 
> like the Kimball Schwander parts will fit and my inclination is to 
> replace the plastic with wood.  The butts have a butt plate so 
> repinning would be extremely easy in that you can put a smaller 
> center pin in.  
> 
> Replacing the parts wouldn't take much more time than repinning.  
> Do any of you have experience with these actions?
> 
> Ron
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Ron Berry, RPT, Indianapolis, IN
> ronberry@iquest.net
> Check out the Piano Page at:
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