Foundry Castings

[Newton Hunt]

Sure it has a lot to do with why it is in pianos.  If it were hard to
machine and if it was expensive it would not be in pianos.  The other
reason is that it has proven it's merit for our purposes and those who
chose a different material have ended up regretting it.  I am sure there
were lots and lots of plate failures before they got the specs right.

Lots of luck.

		Newton

> Delwin D Fandrich wrote:
> 
> And If I haven't created enough confusion yet, I'll toss out another
> one:
> 
> Just why do we think gray iron is the best of all possible materials
> to use for piano plates anyway? What is it about gray iron that is so
> special?
> 
> We say it is extremely rigid -- but it is not. It's brittle. Is this
> an advantage?
> 
> We say it has excellent internal damping characteristics -- but is
> this an advantage? Why?
> 
> Right off hand I can think of only two characteristics that make it a
> particularly good choice for piano plates: [1] It is easy to machine
> and [2] it is cheap. Neither of these has anything to do with its
> performance in the piano.
> 
> Del
> 
> 
>