Dremmels on hammers was RE: mini belt sander for filing hammers

[Porritt, David]

Alan:

I've used a plug in - but variable speed - Dremel on hammers.  It is
particularly nice for radical reshaping.  The secret is practice and
non-aggressive sanding drum.  I've been known to wear the sand paper out
a little on a stone or something so it's not as aggressive.  I also
recommend practicing on a set of hammers you're going to replace so that
if you do take a divot it's on a set you're going to throw away anyway.
I use a strip of Emory cloth for final filing.  In my work at the school
now I try to file hammers frequently enough that I don't have to do
radical shaping.

dp

David M. Porritt
dporritt@smu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of Alan Barnard
Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2005 12:12 PM
To: dnereson@4dv.net, Pianotech
Subject: Dremmels on hammers was RE: mini belt sander for filing hammers

David said: "I've never been able to control a sanding drum on a Dremel
precisely enough to do a nice job -- it's too easy to take a big divot
out
of the hammer, the rpm's are too high, you can't get the bottom side of
the
hammers on vertical actions without removing all the damper levers, and
it's extremely hard to take off just one layer of felt"

You can use a Dremmel comfortably if you buy the battery powered one,
the
MiniMite. You can select down to 5,000 rpm and have a lot of control. I
think I'd stick with sanding paddles on that concert grand, but for
everyday use, and especially on old beaters, the Dremmel's great.

I still use the paddles and stips for the back and underside of most
upright hammers.

Where I really like it is on the angled bass/tenor hammers. But the
slo-mo
Dremmel also gives you good control for light work on the treble.

I owe Alan Hoeckleman credit for talking me into trying this; I only had
the plug-in, dentist's drill version before and was totally unwilling to
use THAT.

Reminds me of a funny moment. In a chapter technical, we had a class on
hammer filing and a discussion of the Dremmel ensued. Someone mentioned
that little device that's supposed to guide the depth of cutting. Wim
Blees
was in our chapter back then; his comment was, "Well, it let's you
control
the depth of your divot."

Alan Barnard
Salem, Missouri



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