Shteinveigh Qvestion

[Porritt, David]

Ed:

I do much the same even here at the school where I take the pianos out
of a room less than 50 yards from my shop.  Not only can a lot of work
be done on the bench, some of it _has_ to be done on the bench (setting
jacks, repetition levers, drop, back checks, traveling, burning etc.).
Yes, there is finish-work that needs to be done in the piano but even
things like let-off can be set close on the bench so you're not cranking
let-off buttons 4 turns while in an uncomfortable position at the piano.

dp

David M. Porritt, RPT
dporritt at smu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On
Behalf Of A440A at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 6:21 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: Shteinveigh Qvestion

Greetings, 
<< In-piano regulation is still the best. >>

I agree, to a point.  I do virtually all of my regulating at the bench, 
unless the job is hours away from home.  I can do it faster, and, I
think, more 
accurately. While some things must be done at the piano, such as key
leveling, 
final let-off and dip,  there are a lot of procedures that are more
easily done 
on a bench.  Seems at the factory, the regulators are all working on
benches 
beside the piano.   
   At the piano, after bedding the keyframe to the keybed, the stack
must be 
mated to the keyframe, (this is critical).  Then I measure string
height, set 
spring, balancier, blow, and dip on the end keys of each section and
take it 
home. I rarely regulate without polishing capstans, a lot of pinning,
and 
cleaning.   After all the pinning is checked and repaired, grubs
cleaned, springs 
polished,(another critical point), it is easy to duplicate the original
flex in 
the frame on the bench because I have the dip set and can easily shim
the 
action to return to the original.  
   It is on the bench that I can most accurately set the jacks,
balancier, 
travel and space,etc.  (I have built a jig that copies the string marks
from the 
hammers before I move anything.  Then, after all the traveling, burning,

pinning, etc.  the stack goes back in the jig and the hammers are
aligned to the 
strings.  Thanks to Steve Jellen for the idea. 
   The other upside of this is while I am home, I can take my time,
catch the 
occasional call to go tune, etc.  I hate deadlines, so I arrange the
return 
several days out.  This  allows me to keep the action on the bench,
letting the 
work on it fill in any holes in my tuning schedule.  This makes for very

efficient time usage, on my own terms.  I can walk into the shop and
begin making 
my hourly rate in any increment that suits me, from 20 minutes of
polishing, 
to hours of repairs. 
Regards, 
Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
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