At 1:02 PM -0500 4/24/03, Conrad Hoffsommer wrote: >I hope to avoid any unpleasant surprises. I forgot to mention. See my post a few weeks back on epoxy reinforced action parts. Also look for the keyframe made of cherry lumber (of no particular grain selection. The back rail was badly warped, the balance rail was not lifted off the bed by the combination of back an front rails (putting the glides out of a job). I glued a 1/2" strip of veneer (some old rosewood I had, hard and oily) which was 1/32" at the bass and 1/16" at the treble. That reduced the stock removal required on the back rail sgnificantly, and got the balance rail up in the air. My damper tray had a buckskin patch installed for a return leaf spring (which one usually finds with its mounting block, next to the end of the damper tray), but the factory forget the spring! Have you looked at the trap lever springs? They're small butterfly-shaped pieces of spring steel which span the mounting blocks (screwed to each) and to which the levers are screwed. They serve both as pivots and return springs. Enough to give anybody a fright, mine showed no sign of fatigue after the first 100 years, so I left them in. I'll check after the second 100 years. Bill Ballard RPT NH Chapter, P.T.G. "May you work on interesting pianos." ...........Ancient Chinese Proverb +++++++++++++++++++++
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