Mike, Dale, Ron, thanks for all your input. I never did this on an old board. I have a very nice old Baldwin in the works which I will try it on. Can't wait to hear the results. I will report back when it's finished.
Al
From: erwinspiano at aol.com
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 8:23 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Diaphragmizing
Hey Big AL
I have been successful thinning the edges of exsisting boards many times with a low angle Lie-Nielsen smoothing plane. A pricey tool at $250.00 but woth it's weight in knawed off sawdust. What ever small hump or ridge that is left at the edge after planning is smoothed out/over with a small orbital sander.
Guestimates on how thin one is going can be taken from around the nosebolts & areas near the rim under the plate can be drilled with toothpick size holes to get a depth guage thru.
The Yamhas I've doone this way were tonally successful...to my ear
Dale
Thanks for the information Ron. When I worked at Steinway in the Regulating department, we had a nose plane. It was a good size plane with the blade up front with no frame in front. I haven't seen one since. It came in very handy preparing the key bed. Unfortunately it was company property. That would be a great tool for reduce the thickness of the panel perimeter around the edge. Tried a Google search but could find anything like it.
Al
--------------------------------------------------
> Al Guecia/AlliedPianoCraft wrote:
>
>> <snip> Rebuilding with an existing board, thinning the bass (or
>> channeling like Overs and Seiler) can be very worthwhile.
>>
>> Can you explain how you do that?
>>
>> Al
>
> Ron O has a photo on the opening page of his website > http://www.overspianos.com.au/ showing the soundboard with a channel > routed around the inner rim in the bass, thinning the panel perimeter. > This is a laminated panel, so tapering it wasn't a reasonable option. The > channel did the trick very nicely.
>
> Another approach, on a solid panel, is to plane, chisel, grind, gnaw, or > otherwise reduce the thickness of the panel perimeter around the edge of > the bass, tapering it back to full thickness in the middle. If you have > sufficient back scale length in the bass to make it worth the trouble > (since you already have the plate out), it should help bass response > noticeably. If you have the classic 40mm back scale on A-0, don't bother.
>
> Ron N
>
>
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