torque

[Richard Brekne]

Keith McGavern wrote:

>
>> The jack center should compare very favourably.... yes ?
>
>
> If you mean favourably to the same gram resistant tolerances as hammer 
> flanges, sorry, no way.

I beg to differ Keith. I always set jack centers very close to the same 
kind of tightness that the hammer centers should be. And the same for 
the whippen flange center, and really just about any center pin you 
could think of in the action.  They simply need to be as tight as they 
can be while still providing for free motion of the parts involved. If 
you put a friction guage on each center and measured with equal distance 
from each centerpin for each part... the readings would be very much the 
same all around.

>
>> I am not sure at all you need the equivalant of a swing test, or a 
>> friction gauge, or any other such exacting test to get jack centers 
>> to conform to an acceptable tolerance here.
>
>
> Sorry, Richard, discarding the need for specific tools to perform 
> certain tasks cannot be discounted. Gram measuring and weighing 
> devices are terrific instruments and serve to demonstrate some 
> significant differences between what is perceived and what is actual.

Nobody discounted them Keith... I simply pointed out that in the actual 
daily dailies of everyday piano work it is hardly necessary to whip out 
some measureing device to insure so and so many this and thats when the 
job at hand can be performed much more quickly and well within 
acceptable tolerances by developing a sense of feel.  The swing  test is 
one such example, the Steinway friction test is another, moving the 
center in and out of each bushing in a flange is another. Setting 
lettoff and drop by eye instead of a measureing stick is yet another.  
These kinds of things are done very successfully all the time. In fact, 
a very good case can be made for the preferablity of doing things this way.

>
> Granted some folks are able to discern feel, but that's only some, and 
> only after a great deal of concentrated activity in the field 
> ascribed, and sometimes only with tutorage, which you know, and 
> anybody who has been paying attention to your posts, have had plenty of.


I really rather think that just about anyone can develop their sense of 
touch or feel if they put themselves to the task.  Sure you need 
references be they in the form of measuring devices or instruction or 
whathave you... but there is no real point in walking around with a 
measuring stick in your pocket the rest of your life when you can 
achieve the same job (or better) within a fraction of the time by 
developing ones sense of feel, or ones eyeball as it were.

>
> I find it very helpful to verify these tools against my perceptions 
> from time to time to insure I am staying on track, and I'm positive I 
> am not alone in this.

I believe that this was my very point... time to time is one thing. 
Total reliance on tools is another yes ?

>
> Keith
>
>