More Advice Sought for 100+ Year Old Bechstein

[Farrell]

> From what I 
> gather, there are steel rods in the hollows of these legs but there has been 
> some wear and tear which has made the rods loose.  I have heard of these rods 
> being fixed by pouring in epoxy.

Are you speaking of rods going between the long part of the leg and the base to secure these two pieces together? I have two legs in my shop right now that are broken. They broke between these two parts. There was a 1-1/4" dowel connecting them. I have drilled four 7/8" holes in each base and four in each long part. I have cut eight 4" long 3/4" oak dowels to join them. I will wet all surfaces down with unthickened West System epoxy, and then apply epoxy thickened with high-strength adhesive filler - put a bunch in all holes - it will ooze out when dowels go in and fill the small gap between the flatish mating surfaces of the long piece and the base. The four 3/4" dowels have 50% more cross sectional area than the original dowel, although the epoxy should be enough all on its own! I am doing a similar procedure to the broken lyre.

To remove a leg, just prop the piano up on a couple strong milk crates or use a jack - no reason to necessarily go over on the side.

Is this what you were asking about?

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Billbrpt@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 2:04 PM
Subject: More Advice Sought for 100+ Year Old Bechstein


> List,
> 
> The Man of La Mancha show now over (with guitar tuned to my specs) and the 
> Chamber music series also concluded, I received a phone call today from the 
> Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation director with the most laudatory comments I 
> could have ever imagine from the musicians, one of the principal sponsors 
> (with whom I had locked horns in the past over issues about what it *really* 
> takes to prepare a piano for a concert) and Foundation members themselves who 
> have known the sound of that piano for decades.
> 
> I spent a total of 12 hours doing alignment, fine regulation and voicing plus 
> 3 concert tunings, all for which I was paid my standard rate (yippee!).  I 
> used the knowledge I had gained principally from the excellent teaching of 
> Bill Garlick RPT and Scott Jones RPT at Steinway factory training seminars.
> 
> The "sloppy" feel and limited dynamic range were due to too much aftertouch 
> and just plain soft hammers.  The action had been set up with a maximally 
> deep keydip of 7/16".  I went with that but filled in on it in final 
> regulation to get uniform aftertouch which I set at the most minimum amount 
> possible.  I set letoff as close as possible and gave it a very long blow 
> distance.  Minimum let off, extra long blow and minimum aftertouch provided 
> maximum power and dynamic range.
> 
> I juiced the hammers with my usual keytop and acetone, right on top of the 
> striking surface and nowhere else.  Yipes!!! you say?  Well, it always works 
> for me.  The difference is that I use *extremely* light concentrations and 
> avoid the left end of the striking surface which will strike the strings when 
> the soft pedal is used.  I did a total of 5 applications and very lightly 
> needled and scratched *between* the grooves for a maximum effect during soft 
> pedaling.
> 
> Obviously, the alignment and regulation must be very precise and even for 
> this to work and that is what takes so much time.  The juicing itself 
> couldn't have taken more than 15 minutes total.  These are techniques I 
> learned at the Steinway factory.
> 
> Now, it appears that the piano legs are weakening and the Fellowship wants me 
> to accept a commission to repair them.  I usually think of myself primarily 
> as a tuner who also does some occasional voicing and regulation work but my 
> rebuilding days ended over 15 years ago.  I would like to take this job, 
> however.  Any of the few area rebuilders would haughtily scoff at this job 
> saying, "I'm too busy" and/or "I only work on Steinways".  That's how I got 
> involved with these people to begin with, no one else would accept the 
> challenges.
> 
> They will pay me for my time and they have plenty of young men there who can 
> help me get the piano on its side so the legs can be worked on.  From what I 
> gather, there are steel rods in the hollows of these legs but there has been 
> some wear and tear which has made the rods loose.  I have heard of these rods 
> being fixed by pouring in epoxy.  Any thoughts on this?  It has been many 
> years since I worked with epoxy so I don't even know where to look for the 
> kind I might need. Any experienced advice would be much appreciated.
> 
> Bill Bremmer RPT
> Madison, Wisconsin
>  <A HREF="http://www.billbremmer.com/">Click here: -=w w w . b i l l b r e m m e r . c o m =-</A> 
>