Deep in thought

[Joe And Penny Goss]

Hi Folks,
The other day while replacing the bridal straps on an old upright with cork
tapes, the monotony of the task allowed my mind to wander into fields of
WHY.

'Is this a right handed job or left handies job?'
So for a while I tried to do the task moving from left to right, or
backwards from the way I usually procede.

This caused me to think about the way that might be the fastest and easiest
to accomplish the task. So here is my procedure.

                                  Cork Bridal Strap Replacement
 Tools needed:
  1.  hammer shank with sharpened center pin in one end to skewer each cork.
It does help to have a cardboard stop on the end of the hammer shank to keep
the tool from pushing the cork too far into the catcher's hole. The pin
needs to protrude 3/16",   any longer will ruin some corks.
  2. One pair of hands.
  3. Some actions will require some sort of action cradle.
  4. 10" tweezers or exacto knife
 Procedure:
1.  Secure the in action cradle if necessary ( non supporting action bracket
feet)
2.  Use your favorite method to remove old tapes. Usually I use a 10' long
pair of tweezers as the cloth is rotten and tears easily. You can gently
push down on the back check to tighten the cloth and reach in to grab the
tape with the tweezers and pull sideways tearing it loose. Try to only
seperate the tape as too much pulling can bend the wire also.
When all the tapes have been cut,  all the back checks will be hanging down
so that the catchers hole is,
"front and center"
Next, remove the old tapes from the wires by first trying to grab them with
the tweezers or small pliers and lift them off the wire pulling up and out..
If the ends are so rotten that they just break,  just break or clip them off
and remove them. At this point some clean up usually is needed to remove
debris from the bridal wire.
3.  Starting on the right hand side of the action, using the tool in your
right hand, skewer a cork so that the tape is on the bottom as you push the
cork into the catchers hole. A gentle rocking up and down of the tool will
help ease the cork into the hole. Moving the tool side to side puts a lot of
pressure on the flange bushings so you will want to support the catcher by
holding it with your left hand.
This is  real easy becuase there are no parts really in the way <G>

During the process you may find repairs that need to be made, such as loose
glue joints and bushing repair.

4. Hooking the tapes up requires no other tools than what we have so far
used.
Using your left hand reach in between the back check and catcher and with
the index and middle finger lift the end of the tape out so that the right
hand can grasp the very end of the tape.  Sometimes the tape is a little
hard to fish out and pushing that hammer forward will make that tape sort of
"salute" so that it can be caught. If that fails the tweezers or the hammer
shank can be used to lift the tape out.
The next step, once the tape is in my right hand, is to push down on the
heel of the jack  with my left index finger and in the next moment push up
against the catcher wire so that the wippen and jack are very near to where
they will be when the tape is attached.
Now the tape can be installed ( did you take the twist if any out of the
tape ) .
Note at this time if there is too much slack in the bridal tape allowing the
jack to fall below the square of felt on the hammer butt. If there is one
can trip the jack again, and with the left hand hold the wippen and hammer
assembly and pull back on the bridal wire with the right hand thumb on the
wire and the index finger supporting the wippen until the wire bends at its
the base, taking out most of the slack of the tape. This usually leaves the
tape loose enough that only fine adjustments are needed, when all straps are
hooked up, and if you are lucky the tapes are just long enough to leave this
process until all straps are installed.

Some other finger movement of parts will be necessary, as things do not
always go as planned.
Such as lifting up the catcher of the previous assembly to give more room to
work, using the fourth finger or ring finger of the right hand while not
letting go of the tape <G>.
I guess the reason for me that this is a right handed procedure is that the
bend in the bridal wire is such that they seem to go on easier by twisting
the tape counter clock wise, and then clock wise as the tape is installed.

There are three sizes of corks available. Mostly the medium size cork is
what you will find is needed, however it is good to have a few sets of small
and large on hand.
This is a noncopy righted document as are all of Mothers postings <G> LOL
Joe Goss  BS Mus Ed MMus Ed RPT