Kawai RX-2 squeaky whippens

[Piannaman@aol.com]

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Jean-Luc,
 
I'll bet you get lots of things squeaking in pianos in NM...:-)
 
The biggest cause of squeaks I've seen in newih Kawais besides knuckle-jack  
noise is drop screws squeaking on drop leather.  Teflon powder has done the  
trick for me, though it's a bit more challenging to burnish it in than it is on 
 knuckles.  Dean's pipe cleaner might work.
 
In the San Francisco Bay Area, it usally takess a year or more to happen,  
and I've not seen it as often in RXs as in the less expensive models.  I'm  sure 
the dry air in the desert will cause squeaks to become evident sooner than  
in my area.
 
Dave Stahl
 
In a message dated 2/8/05 5:24:58 AM Pacific Standard Time,  
deanmay@pianorebuilders.com writes:

Keys can also give you a squeak. Dip a  pipe cleaner in some teflon powder 
and apply it to the balance rail hole and  bushings and the front bushings on a 
couple of samples and see if that takes  care of it. 
 
Dean

-----Original Message-----
From:  pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]On Behalf 
Of  Jlmatt@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2005 2:13  AM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: Kawai RX-2 squeaky  whippens


This is about a warranty service call. The client is complaining about  noisy 
keys on a new RX2 she purchased in October. When I try the  piano I hear a 
loud leathery kind of squeak on just about  every key. The first thing that 
comes to my mind is jack against  knuckle kind of sound.
I take the action out, lift the hammers out of the way and push up  on the 
whippens by hand, the squeak is still there, so it's not the jacks  and it's not 
the capstans. Everything looks properly aligned, nothing seems  to be rubbing 
against anything but all the whippens squeak, some  louder than other, but 
all 88 do. I decide to take one out to get a  closer look. It looks normal, I 
wiggle the jack, the repetition lever, the  flange, no problem. I screw it back 
on the rail and then the squeak is gone!  
So all I did then was loosen every  single single flange screw a couple of 
turns  and screwed them  back in. And that took care of the problem. But I am 
still puzzled. 
Then back at the store I tried another RX-2 and sure enough, it squeaks  too. 
Not as loud, not as distracting, you really have to listen for it,  but it's 
there. I tried my trick with the flange screws on that  one but it did not 
make any difference.
Any comments, ideas? 




 

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