----- Original Message ----- From: "Phillip Ford" <fordpiano@earthlink.net> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: August 29, 2002 9:26 AM Subject: Re: Foundry Castings > > I guess I've got to wonder would it make a bit > > of difference in the outcome of the piano? > > Would a steel, ceramic whatever plate be worth > > it? > > > > David I. > > I wonder if it would make a difference in the outcome as well. That's part of > the point of the discussion. My belief is that there's nothing magical about > cast gray iron, so many other things could be used. This gives you some > options both in choice of material and in choice of manufacturing method. The > reason I'm interested is because this might allow design changes, such as the > barless plate, or allow production on a much smaller scale, such as in my > shop. I'm not interested in convincing the industry of the superiority of > some other type of material or manufacturing method. Nor am I. As far as I am concerned I am convinced that several materials hold promise and at least one is proven. I have built several prototype pianos using simple welded steel plates and in each case the performance of the plate has been excellent. Indeed, somewhat better than the later production pianos using cast gray iron. I'm not sure that all of that "better performance" can be attributed to the steel plate, but at least some of it can--certainly much of the superior sustain through the upper third of the scale. > > As I see it one of the major limitations for producing a piano on a small > scale is the plate casting. If you produce thousands of them, then gray iron > castings are cheap. To produce only a few, or more to the point to produce > the first one, is very expensive. And once you do produce the casting you're > reluctant to change the design, even if you feel it needs it, because the new > redesigned casting would be so expensive. This tends to limit piano > production to large factories. I could produce a guitar, a violin, or a > harpsichord in my own shop on a limited budget. Not so with a piano, because > of the plate (assuming I have to use a conventional plate). In the 1970s at least one Baldwin engineer did a considerable amount of work evaluating the cost and performance of steel plates in small vertical pianos, comparing them to the conventional cast gray iron plates used in the same models. I don't know anything about the results of their performance tests (except that the engineer telling me about the project said performance was as good or better and that there were no apparent problems--ringing or otherwise). Their cost analysis revealed that in mass production (whatever that means) the cost of the steel plates would be comparable to what they were then paying for cast gray iron and they would have control over plate manufacturing. At the time there was only one U.S. foundry capable of producing piano plates in volume and this was a desirable goal. For a variety of reasons--the bankruptcy of Baldwin-United among them--the project was ultimately dropped. > > .... If you > want to build the world's cheapest shiny black piano shaped object that looks > like every other shiny black piano shaped object, then no, it wouldn't be > worth it. That does pretty much sum it up! Del
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