plastic flanges

[Nina / Cliff Lesher]

Tom,

I recently evaluated one of these for a dealer and recommended it be sent to the
boneyard.  Did they send it to you?  Kidding.

Four broken damper assemblies were lying in the bottom of the piano.  Upon close
inspection, I found the plastic to be unacceptable for continued service.  I
performed some further destructive tests such as seeing how far the parts would
bend before breaking.  Their strength was about equal to that of Ritz crackers.

There was a broken wippen too.  Its flange may have been slightly tougher; Oreo
tough.

My lab rat was a '50s Janssen console, Louvers Galore model, art-deco cabinetry.
Pencil traps everywhere.  No need to attend the back-to-school sales this year.

My vote:  retrofit and get some sleep.

Cliff Lesher, RPT
Lewisburg, PA



Tvak@AOL.COM wrote:

> I have a piano which I am planning to sell. which has plastic flanges
> throughout the action.  The damper lever flanges were extremely brittle and I
> replaced all of them.  They all broke in the same place:  the spring is
> mounted off-center on the flange, and it was the narrow side which broke
> consistently.
>
> The wippen flanges and the hammer butt flanges are also plastic,  but don't
> seem to be as brittle.  (The damper flanges would break if I bumped into them
> while filing the hammers.)  I know that the plastic in this piano was all
> manufactured at the same time (1950), and the condition of the damper flanges
> is indicative of the condition of all the other flanges, but is it possible
> that these other flanges aren't breaking because they don't have the kind of
> stress that the damper flanges have (the spring)?  Is it possible the other
> flanges might be OK?  Must I replace all the flanges if I want to sleep at
> night after selling this piano?
>
> Tom Sivak
> Associate, Chicago chapter PTG