Capstans... which brings me back to....

Ric Brekne ricbrek@broadpark.no
Sun, 17 Apr 2005 22:26:26 +0100


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And update on my Magnetic Assist mechanism for the grand action. The 
Virtual capstan of a couple years back that btw has been  up and working 
just dandily this past year now.  8 hours a day they are banging away on 
this instrument..

But too the point.... I have not been satisfied trying to deal with the 
standard capstan adjustment when using the fold down magnet assembly.   
So... I've come up with a new version of the old rocker arm... which I 
think has many good points.

Note... The following  amounts to Public Disclosure of an invention. 
True to style any one is free to open source develope the concept as 
they wish, but no patents can follow unless one devises a clear 
improvement on the basic idea.

First a drawing of the rocker arm.



The assembly features an axled roller (brass) instead of a standard 
capstan for the interface with the whippen cushion. It is also axled to 
the key (red dot on the half round in the middle) The magned assembly is 
just behind that, and the height adjustment is in the front.  It employs 
a lock nut on both the under and top sides of the rocker arm.  This 
allows for precise adjusment of the roller height with the use of only 
one screw instead of the old two screw type. Further, only one screw is 
needed as the assembly is held in place both by the front adjustment 
screw and the center pinnning in the middle.

All this allows for complete freedom of adjustment of both  the  
physical <<capstan>> height (in the form of the roller) and the virtual 
capstan height (magnet)

The roller allows for a minumum of friction between the key assembly and 
whippen cushion. No sliding whatsoever.

An article on this is in the works and I expect to publish soon. The 
Magnetic Assist Grand Action by Richard Brekne is an open source 
development project and can be used to replace significant amounts of 
lead in the keys.  Read the article in both the PTG Journal last year 
and the European for more infomation.

Cheers
Richard Brekne


A common misperception.  It does slide.  The involute curve is the standard
gear tooth profile.  The important quality of the involute curve, is that
it transmits uniform angular velocity.  So that as the driving gear rotates
at constant RPM, the driven gear also rotates at constant RPM, with minimum
noise and vibration.  But they do slide.  Make your self a paper cutout and
try it.

It's also interesting to consider the angle of gear teeth.  Standard angles
for spur gears are 14 and 20 degrees.  14 degree teeth are smoother and
quieter, and have a longer wear life because at a given load they have
lower contact stress.  In fact, zero angle or negative angle would be even
better, from a contact stress point of view, but with small or negative
angles there is a geometry problem known as "undercutting",  where the base
of the tooth ends up narrower than the contact area, and is prone to
fracture.  20 degree teeth are a compromise, used for pinions with very few
teeth to prevent undercutting.

So does a capstain slide on the wippen cushion felt, except for the instant
that the contact point passes through the "magic line".  Before and afer
that point, the Overs capstain slides the least, standard vertical capstan
slides a little more, and the Steinway backwards leaning capstan slides a
little more than that.

more than you wanted to know, and it still does not explain why S&S might
have done that.

Mike



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