Warped plate on Henry F. Miller

[Greg Newell]

Well now, I've taken some measurements and have succeeded in pulling the 
action. I was just too intrigued to let this go today and dove right in. 
The piano is an interesting beastie to be sure. I've taken photos of all 
this too and can take more if anyone is really interested. The keybed is 
not warped and so did not contribute to the difficulty in pulling the 
action. The glide screws were already tuned all the way down so that didn't 
help. I attached some electrical wire to the action brackets and while 
using a pry bar between the pin block and the hammer flange rail I was able 
to wiggle the action out with the wire. Once out I found some interesting 
things about the piano. I wasn't really looking so didn't notice that the 
plate has 2 horns. I still don't know if they're adjusted properly but it 
has 2! The sostenuto is handled quite differently using a separate rail 
that sits behind the damper lift rail. Both are tube steel. I'm not sure if 
I could adequately describe the mechanism but I did take a picture which 
I'll send along. I took measurements of the string height, underside pin 
block height, and gap between string and plate in the middle where a string 
was stretched across the top. That last measurement BTW was 1/4". My 
apologies in advance to the using only metric. I used one of those spring 
loaded plunger things with the ruler beside it. Anyway the measurements are;

Pin block height (from underneath)
Bass                    Tenor                   Treble 
High Treble
6 3/8"                  6 5/16"                 6 1/4"                  6 1/2"



String heights (3 locations in each section)
                         Low                     Middle                  High
Bass                    8 5/16"                 8 5/16"                 8 9/32"

Tenor                   7 29/32"                7 15/16"                7 
31/32"

Treble                  7 31/32"                8 1/32"                 8 1/32"

High Treble             8 1/32"                 8 1/16"                 8 3/32"


While the pin block seems to have a good discrepancy in numbers it doesn't 
exactly repeat in the string heights. At least not too radically. My 
thoughts are to replace the pin block with one of less thickness and use 
risers to achieve the same end elevation. This should provide clearance in 
the center as long as I can get away with the thinner block with respect to 
the tuning pin length. I'm wondering also whether I can (and whether on not 
it is advisable) restore some straight line with the double plate horns. 
The right one closest to the treble end seems to be the one that could use 
adjustment. Behind it and not too far away is a nose bolts that would have 
to be taken into consideration too. Any other thoughts?

Greg Newell
Greg's piano Forté
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net