OK next question: Tugging on ham. rail chek lost motion

[Fenton Murray]

Julia,
Some tell tail signs of lost motion are an uneven key board ,bubbling hammers, dampers not lifting. Run your finger tips very lightly across the keys and watch the back checks, see if they move while the hammers stay put. Play the piano! you can fell it. It's all about correcting low performance in the action, not just a checking and adjusting for a certain specification. You're asking how to check for lost motion in this piano, I would ask, why do you suspect that there is lost motion? BTW, blindly setting hammer blow and lost motion to spec in an old, worn upright action can have a few consequences that you might not be happy with.....like no damper follow. You gotta compromise on the old beasts. Hang in there.
Fenton
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David Nereson 
  To: Pianotech List 
  Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2008 1:45 PM
  Subject: Re: OK next question: Tugging on ham. rail chek lost motion


  You're not really checking lost motion, but, as you said in your first post, the lack thereof.  You can depress the damper pedal (so the returning wippens don't have any assist from damper lever springs), then depress ten keys at a time and let them up very slowly, looking to see if any jacks don't snap all the way under their hammer butts.  If they don't, turn the capstan down by quarter turns until the jack returns all the way when the key is let up slowly.  Otherwise, the visual "backcheck wink" method is as good as any -- very lightly tap on the keys and see if the backcheck just "winks" before the butt moves (watch the catcher).  Or, as someone else suggested, press on the tail end of the keys, mashing them into the back rail felt a little, and see if any hammers wink backwards.  If so, the jacks are holding them up off the rail a little.  
      --David Nereson, RPT
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: KeyKat88 at aol.com 
    To: pianotech at ptg.org 
    Sent: Friday, February 08, 2008 10:13 PM
    Subject: OK next question: Tugging on ham. rail chek lost motion


    Greetings,

          Thank you for answers validating my method of checking lost motion. 
    NEXT question....Then how can I check lost motion when this one piano a customer has, has a brace which will not allow the rail to move with a backwards tug and I cant check the lost motion, Is there another way of checking it? I am guessing I have to go key to key and check it.

    THank you
    Julia
    Reading, PA 





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