Balance rail punchings

[Don Valley]

 I do not believe pianos were done without balance rail punchings.  I have
seen them totally eaten away and/or removed by a previous (technician?).  My
advice is to determine the correct key height, then add at least the thin
punching, preferably with a .010 punching under each one in order to be able
to adjust the key level downward, if necessary, when you do your final
leveling.
A piano without balance rail punchings would be somewhat noisy, to say the
least.
Don Valley

-----Original Message-----
From: John Delmore [mailto:johndelmore@cox.net] 
Sent: Saturday, September 03, 2005 11:13 PM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: Balance rail punchings

Hi all:
Today, I got into the Brinkerhoff "lab" piano--just a thourough cleaning
right now.  I noticed that there are no felt punching on the balance rail:
is this common for circa 1925 pianos (sn 114743 if any of you kind folks
have an atlas handy)?  I'm guessing I shouldn't "add" felts where I don't
find them.
John Delmore