Slow Console Action

[Ron Nossaman]

>I eased the key bushings - are you suggesting something else be done with 
>the key bushings? And I did not mention it, but I microfine Tefloned the 
>wippen heel pads. I would have put the powdered Teflon on the hammer butt 
>leather also, but I could not figure out how to get it in there without 
>removing every butt. Anyone ever get powdered Teflon in there on an 
>assembled vertical action?
>
>Terry Farrell


The offset angle on the keys of these little things is usually pretty 
extreme. The bushing to the inside of the angle stays brand spanking new 
for hundreds of years, because the pin rarely touches it, and barely 
touches it when it does. The outside bushing, however, wears at an extreme 
rate because the leverage from the key offset puts considerable pressure on 
it all the time, with both up and down key travel. The bushing cups, and 
the tangent line between bushing and pin changes through the keystroke. As 
the key is trying to come up, that contact tangent is farthest away from 
parallel to the key (front half), and offers the most resistance to the key 
getting all the way back up. Both the high pressure from the offset, and 
the cup and resulting non-parallel tangent line keep the key from coming 
back up, and the closer it gets to being all the way back up, the worse the 
angle gets and the more resistance it offers. Easing won't help, because 
felt at the front of the bushing springs back, while the bottom of the 
groove that's felt reinforced glue doesn't. Sometimes just bending the pin 
back a twidge will get the pin off the front slope and the key will work 
again. Whittling the ramp off of the front part of that bushing so the 
whole thing from the middle forward is a straight felt reinforced glue skid 
will work too. That's what I do as a quick and dirty field "repair" (dodge, 
if bending the pin doesn't work). It is what it is, and that key bushing is 
only a very small art of it's problems. Often C-8 won't work under any 
circumstances, and I pull it and cove the side of the key with my trusty 
Buck to re-balance it enough to get it working. I've done this to dozens of 
the little Baldwins specifically, and a lot of other pocket pianos in 
general. The idea is to get it going without adopting the bloody thing. 
Life is short, and there's better sawdust to be made elsewhere.

Ron N