Upright Wippen Rebuilding Questions

[Farrell]

I can easily see that optimal working with hot hide glue is really quite an art in itself.

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Keith Roberts" <kpiano@goldrush.com>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2003 2:02 PM
Subject: Re: Upright Wippen Rebuilding Questions


> > 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
> 
> 
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