How to adjust let-off with no adjustable capstan?

[Thomas Cole]

John,

You may have the best solution for the circumstance, but it occurs to me 
that these "nails" may be a bit loose in the key stick by now. I mean, 
how much of an interference fit could there be to start with, and then 
wood shrinkage / grain crush? So a little hard playing and it knocks the 
capstans into the wood and you have lost motion.

I have this fantasy that you could raise the capstans with a small pry 
bar and tap them down with a hammer to just right - you'd have to pull 
each key a time or two for the tapping. Then fix the whole set of them 
with some thin CA glue. Might be how they did it in the factory ('cept 
for the CA).

Tom Cole

John Ross wrote:

> Unfortunately Ron, I can't escape this one. It is one that was donated 
> to my Legion, and I tune it for free, once a year.
> I was hoping a special tool was available.
> It is playable, just a few need the excess lost motion taken out.
> I don't tune it again till next November. I will go the cheap, free to 
> them way, of gluing something onto the "capstans", for the real bad ones.
> If the rest of the piano was in good shape, I would donate 
> installation of capstans. But it is not, so cheap is the way to go.
> I am surprised, that no one else has run into a piano, with this 
> excuse for a capstan.
> John M. Ross
> Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada
> jrpiano@win.eastlink.ca
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ron Nossaman" <rnossaman@cox.net>
> To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 6:10 PM
> Subject: Re: How to adjust let-off with no adjustable capstan?
>
>
>>> Hi Ron.
>>>
>>> Bah, and then, if you were a sculptor, would you choose clay (sooo 
>>> easy) or marble (sooo difficult) for your next masterpiece ?  What 
>>> would you
>>> make tend toward one or the other material ?
>>
>>
>> I'd chose the clay for playing with, and the marble for the finished 
>> work (unless I cast the clay in bronze), but this is an entirely 
>> different thing. We aren't making a masterpiece with this old capstan 
>> challenged upright. It's a no pay, maximum aggravation, zero 
>> expectation lost cause that realistically passed it's life expectancy 
>> many (manymanymany) years ago. If I was trapped into adjusting lost 
>> motion in this critter, I'd just cut my losses, add real capstans, 
>> and escape as quickly, cheaply, and thoroughly as possible with a 
>> promise to myself to do everything I could to avoid being in that 
>> situation again. It doesn't always work, naturally, because we always 
>> eventually find ourselves in another no win situation. It's the 
>> nature of us.
>>
>>
>>> Beware, as the answer on this question will tell much about the 
>>> intimate you.
>>
>>
>> Too late! I'm exposed.
>>
>>
>>
>> No peeking.
>>
>> Ron N
>> _______________________________________________
>> pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
>
>