Abel Hammers..trouble opening them up..help!

Isaac sur Noos oleg-i@noos.fr
Wed, 5 Nov 2003 01:52:29 +0100


Hi Amery,

I have no picture at hand, but I made a voicing support (was shown by
my friend Eric) to be used on the bench/a table with the hammers on
the action stack, but the stack out of the keyboard.

This is simply a somewhat thick hard wood piece 5 cm x 5 x 40 cm env,
with 2 supports that are positionned under it (with 2 dowels/holes for
a simple fixture) - can be dismounted

The support have a shape like a "U" that you turn a quater turn left,
so you can lock the support on the bench with 2 presses. The tails of
the hammers are then laying on that very robust support, the heads ar
at letoff/String height, and this gives a good opportunity to file
hammer, needle them hard, or do whatever job you want to do on them
while the tails are on a firm rest.

You may check the lenght and size so you can work inside 2 action
stack feet or around it. I don't have it at hand but will post real
dimensions asap (convenient for most grands)

Took me 15 minutes to build one, I'll try to post pictures. The system
is easy to carry it helps to work a little better than with the usual
voicing blocks for hammer filing, particularely when you have assist
springs in the way, it is then better to use that kind of tool.

Dismounting the hammers to needle them seem overkill to me, but I know
some that do that for vertical pianos - anyway having a perfect shape
when filing hammers help as you can trust that referenece for the
strings level, particularely with new strings it speed the process of
leveling/mating.

On the other hand I finally understood how to shave a crown in 10-15
min or do a more pronounced filing in 1 hour or less without
dismounting the action, this is another way of working, probably
slighly less precise result, but it is of primal importance to be able
to do these kind of jobs in a relatively short time, because this is
waht can give the better result when you have to deal with
professional pianists, students, ect, or even old beaten pianos that
should be fixed before another one is planned (or repaired).

For needling, I ordered at Antares the very best needles I ever had ,
they come from japan,and are Very sharp and Very precise.

Soft needles are not very useful I've find, English needles are prone
to break (but very sharp) French needles are a tad thick but very
robust, German needles semm ok but not very robust.

I wonder also, if the usual process of inserting a few deep stiches
with one 8-9 mm needle in the low regins of the hammer does not help
to work more easely when building the shoulders.

Nowaday whe a hammer is unresponsive, it is very frustrating I believe
the fiber have lost its natural resiliency, no needling can bring it
back then.

Best to all, good luck.

isaac OLEG



------------------------------------
PianoTech
Isaac OLEG
accordeur - reparateur - concert
oleg-i@noos.fr
17 rue de Choisy
94400 Vitry sur Seine
tel: 033 01 47 18 06 98
fax: 033 01 47 18 06 90
mobile: 033 06 60 42 58 77
------------------------------------


> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : pianotech-bounces@ptg.org
> [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]De la
> part de aMeRy cHaY
> Envoye : vendredi 31 octobre 2003 14:44
> A : pianotech@ptg.org
> Objet : Re: Abel Hammers..trouble opening them up..help!
>
>
> Hello List...
>
> As started from a few months ago, I've finally managed
> to finish my Yamaha C7 with the Abels...
>
> Here's the thing:
>
> These are the "type Yamaha" hammers and they are
> AWFULLY bright..and everytime I drive needles into
> them they end up breaking. I've used so much force
> that I broke a shank already.
>
> I'm considering using a solution of some sort after
> reading the previous posts....
>
> Anyone has experience in dealing with these Abels? Do
> respond...thanks!
>
> Amery
> Singapore
>
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