Upright Wippen Rebuilding Questions

[Keith Roberts]

> So many of the things I am doing in my shop, I am doing for the first or
second time. In many ways my focus is on doing it right and getting the
results I want. After I am sure I have that down pat, I will focus on
efficiency.
>
> Terry Farrell
>
That's what I was focusing on, doing it right. If you have to much glue and
squeeze too hard, the glue goes into the felt making it too thin and hard to
be good. It's my perception that you don't want to clamp the felt. Just lay
it down into the glue and smooth out. Hot hide glue is used because it needs
to be worked fast. It seems to have two stages, cool down and gel. Cool down
happens quick, you get your felt into the glue at this stage. Both stages
vary in time according to how much glue you used, etc. The gel time varies
with different felts. A soft felt that sucks the glue up will have a shorter
gel time. Working time can be altered. Within the working temp of the glue
you can have hot and thick, hot and thin, cool and thick, and cool and thin.
So let me stick MY neck out. I'll describe the job I was doing yesteday.
Damper felts on a Baldwin grand. I cut the felts and set them in order in a
tray. All square cuts on this one. Sitting at the piano, the glue pot,
dampers and felts to the left, I grab the damper, turn it over, brush on the
glue, set the felts into the glue quick. A little fuss with alignment, turn
it over, make sure, then a quick, firm, press. Knock off the squeeze and put
the damper in place. Of course I've loosened all the screws and checked the
hole with a drill bit. At this point I have about 15 to 30 sec to push the
felt around with the tip of a screwdriver. This aligns the head with the
string and makes the front and back edge look the same. Neat. The whole
process was approx. 1 1/2 minutes per head, so cooldown was 15 seconds, the
gel adjustment time was about 1 minute. Maybe a little more. Once you set
the felt, it will stay unless you bump it putting on the next piece. On your
small pieces a 5 sec cool down and 15 second gel time, or about ten seconds
apiece. That's a long time. 15 seconds seems like minute to most people.
Remember, even coating of glue. When it dries, the felt draws down evenly
and looks natural.
I hope that wasn't too Off Thread Topic. I tried to stick with my
perceptions of working with hot hide glue. I'm sure there will be those that
say this post was about gluing on grand dampers and strayed to far from the
posted thread but I thought it was a fair offshoot.
Keith Roberts