[pianotech] bushing cloth wear, (was Best Bushing)

[Mike Morvan]

Ed,
    I second your statement concerning bushing cloth. The bushing cloth
these days appears to be more of a spongy felt than a firm woven cloth. We
have had new and old keyboards in our shop from pianos and organs made in
The United States, England, Germany, Japan, and China. The problem appears
universal in instruments from all over the world and in models ranging from
the el-cheapo to the budget-buster. Another big concern is the mystery glues
that are becoming more popular for bushing insertion, ranging from wood glue
to hot-melt to double sided tape. Mike
Blackstone Valley piano
Michael A. Morvan
76 Sutton Street
Uxbridge, Ma 01569
(508) 266-0070
www.pianoandorgankeys.com
www.thepianorebuilders.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <A440A at aol.com>
To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 4:11 PM
Subject: [pianotech] bushing cloth wear, (was Best Bushing)


> Greetings,
>
> <<  We want a very firm, yet resilient
>
> surface against the keypin, not a hard unforgiving one.  We're going for
>
> adhesion here, and not much "penetration" into the cloth is necessary. >>
>
>    I agree. And I wonder what is going on with the cloth, these days.  I
> rebushed 6 grands 18 months ago with the BU series of cloth from PianoTek. 
> I took
> care to use as little glue as possible, and all of them required just a
> little easing when first installed, and I left the keys with as little 
> free play as
> possible.  They were totally worn out, with keys hitting keys, within the
> year!  Front rails worse than balance.
>     I have never had wear that fast with the older, two color cloth that
> Steinway used to sell.  This new version seems softer and spongier, too. 
> Half of
> these pianos were lubed with Teflon powder, the other with McLube. The 
> pins
> were all polished, too. None of it made any difference, they are all 
> totally
> shot.
>   These pianos are in a very high use application, but I have been 
> gettting
> 4 years out of keybushing with the Steinway and/or Fletcher-Newman 
> "boxcloth"
> supplies I used for many years.  Anybody else have these problems?  I 
> didn't
> iron the felt, but then again, I never have before, and the other cloth
> certainly performed better.
> 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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