Question from a rank amatuer

[David Love]

Lost motion relates to uprights only where you don't want the jack actually
resting against the hammer butt leather.  The lost motion refers to that
small gap that allows the jack to return to rest position.  On a grand the
repetition lever takes care maintaining that distance between the top of the
jack and the knuckle so regulating for lost motion is not required.  On a
grand, however, you do have to regulate the balancier height to insure that
the jack is not dragging on it so that it can still return under the knuckle
easily.    

 

David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net 

-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Thomas [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Christopher Thomas
Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2006 1:11 PM
To: Pianotech List
Subject: Question from a rank amatuer

 

I am not a piano technician by profession or training. For reasons I will
describe presently, I have been a member of your group for a short while,
and have been very impressed by what I have read. 

 

I am an architect who - for reasons of trying to keep his sanity after hours
- has been restoring a 1910 Brambach piano. I have read Arthur Reblitz's
book cover to cover several times now, Piano Action repairs and maintenance
by K.T. Kennedy, and any number of tretise that is posted on-line (such as
Bill Spurlock's "Regulating Tips").

 

I am writing this with some trepidation. I certainly hate amatuers' forrays
into my field - especially ones who have read books prepared for amatuers
such as the ones I have listed above. As I said earlier, I have been greatly
impressed by the ongoing discussions of this group, because the range of the
art, technical and professional subjects in many ways mirrors my own (I have
particularly enjoyed the thread on ethics over the past few days as it shows
a very high degree of professionalism within the world of piano technicians.

 

So, in reading all of these exchanges over the past few days, one has
particularly mistified me, and it relates to the work I am about to do on
the Brambach. In the general discussion on lost motion what I do not get, is
that my understanding is that the capstan should adjust the height of the
hammer at rest and should therefore be always engaged on the lever heel of
the wippen. Yet, I have read - as a part of the lost motion thread - the
notion that every force and movement on the key should have show on the
hammer. So my question is, if the capstan is always engaged with the heel,
then there could never be lost motion except if the punchings below the keys
were compressing. I am trying to think all this through as I am about to
install a new set of hammers (you may think I am brave as an amatuer, but if
you paid for this piano what I did, it is a cheap thrill), and after that
will go through the whole regulating regemine...

 

 You are all welcome to poke fun at me, and I promise, once I get this done
to always hire a professional in the future. 

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