Softening hard 1980 Sohmer hammer advice requested.

[Alan McCoy]

Thanks Horace,

I have kept the beasts so I'll take the time to experiment. It's lacquer for
sure. I'll give lacquer thinner a try as per your suggestion.

Alan 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Horace Greeley
Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2006 11:47 PM
To: Pianotech List
Subject: RE: Softening hard 1980 Sohmer hammer advice requested.


Hi, Alan,

At 10:32 PM 11/26/2006, you wrote:
>Hi Thump,
>
>Maybe a moot issue now. But I have a S&S M action in the shop now with 
>over-lacquered hammers. I tried washing out the lacquer with acetone. I 
>soaked the hammers with a generous helping of acetone. Four 
>applications of acetone over 2 weeks. Vigorous needling, squeezing the 
>hammers to try to breathe life into these lacquer brickettes. I made almost
no progress.

Hmmm...are you sure that they were hardened with lacquer and not plastic
("keytop")?  If lacquer, then I would suggest using lacquer thinner.  One or
two really healthy doses should do it.  If "keytop" 
(which, if from the factory, it is something else), then acetone is the
right way to go...but, perhaps with a slightly different technique.  If you
pull the stack, and, rotating it so that the hammer tails are free, set the
tails into some kind of shallow pan (I use old aluminum ice cube trays).
Then, flood the hammers with acetone until it runs freely down/out of them.
As soon as you are done with that, cover the hammers with aluminum foil and
wait...4 - 6 hours or overnight.  Repeat this a couple of times.  In either
case, once you see the hardener starting to "run" out of the hammer as you
apply the next batch of thinner/acetone, blow the hammers out with
compressed air.

The "trick" in the above is to be patient until whatever hardener has been
used is again in solution.  Remember that it takes time for "keytop"
material to dissolve in acetone, and that it is usually broken up or
relatively thin when that is done.  Once it hardens up in a hammer, it turns
into a brick...so, getting it back into solution is going to take some time.

>Called the piano owner and explained that the hammers were beyond repair.
>Now I'm replacing these with S&S hammers and Abel shanks (it is from 
>the teflon era). It'll be interesting to see how these newer S&S hammers
sound.
>Hammer #1 weighs 10.1g and #88 weighs 5.2g - unbored untapered.

All of the above said, one does have to weigh the cost of time spent
rescuing something v. the time simply replacing it.

>You might have better success than I did, but these hammers were the 
>worst I've ever seen.

I've done this any number of times, most often with at least reasonable
results...still, as noted, sometimes the best thing to do is to start over.

If you can, I'd suggest seeing if you can keep the old parts to experiment
with and see if you can (eventually) do something with them.  I think that
the only such set the I have actually had to throw away was one that had
been similarly treated and then deep-needled to death through the crown.
The poor hammers simply fell apart once the hardeners had been dissolved.

  Best.

Horace




>Alan
>
>--Alan McCoy, RPT
>Inland Northwest Chapter
>Spokane, WA
>ahm at webband.com
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On 
>Behalf Of gordon stelter
>Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2006 11:17 AM
>To: Isaac Sadigursky; Pianotech List
>Subject: Softening hard 1980 Sohmer hammer advice requested.
>
>Am trying to soften the hammers on a 1980 Sohmer grand, 5'7".
>The hammers are those ones with the purple underfelt, and the yellow 
>lacquer shoulders. ( What a  color combo !!! ) WAAAAAAAAY too hard !!!!
>Have already sanded out minor grooves, and now planning to "sugar-coat"
>strike points with shallow needling. But would prefer specific advice 
>from someone who has already worked with this hammer type, in a similar 
>predicament.
>
>       Thanks!
>       Thump
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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