steam voicing

[Farrell]

My iron does cool a bit by the time I'm done with a section of hammers. I
guess I kinda play with its characteristics in that I hit the most needed
areas first that get the big steam. I also reach past the tip of the hammers
(bottom of verticals and back of grands) with the iron tip going down a
section, then do the hammer tips (if I'm going to do these - and I do on
hard hammers), and then do the the last side of the hammers (just past the
tip on the top of verticals and front of grands) with the heel of the iron
(by this time the tip of the iron will not produce steam, but the heel will.
I also time my progress of the whole section with knowing how long my iron
will stay hot - I move pretty quick - with well-aligned hammers (every once
in a while I service a piano like that) I sometimes even just slide back and
forth across the whole section when I'm trying to nurse the last bit of heat
out of the iron.

Terry Farrell
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Musial" <piano@villagehost.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2001 8:12 PM
Subject: Re: steam voicing


> Hi
> > Hello Michael. I'm curious what kind of problems have you had trying to
> > steam voice. I (and others?) may be having problems and don't even know
it
> > (now THAT's a problem!).
>
> I experimented a bit and then did two complete steam voicings. The
> first was on some VERY bright vertical hammers. The results were not
> that great. Trying this with the action still in the piano was not a
> good thing for me to do either. I sizzled my fingers a few times :)
> The second try was on a very bright Baldwin 226E grand. I steamed the set
of
> hammers twice and was not satisfied with the results. I came back a
> few weeks later and used water/alcohol followed by needling. That did
> the trick. The customer was quite pleased.
>
> I wrung out the cloth as best I could before placing it on the
> hammers, but I could only do three or four hammers before the iron
> cooled off, then I had to wait a good 90 seconds before proceeding to
> the next three or four. That was very frustrating. I then tried my 80
> watt iron without a controller... MUCH too hot!  I need to get a
> wattage controller ( Schaff's is $80.. ouch!)
>
> Michael Musial
> Reedsville Pa
>
>
>