[pianotech] Grand Hammer Removal / Replacement

John Delacour JD at Pianomaker.co.uk
Sat Jun 27 13:16:44 MDT 2009


At 15:29 -0400 23/6/09, G Cousins wrote:

>A "speed" technique is to cut the hammers off without touching the 
>shanks. This is done by using a pair of side cutters and cutting (a 
>splitting of sort of the hammre wood)from the tail up toward the 
>shank. After a few times this is quit a rapid hammre removal method. 
>There is no need to chip off the glew collar until after the entire 
>set of hammers is removed.

Yes. This or a similar method is by far the quickest, least damaging 
and least tiring way to remove hammer-heads.  The German tool sold by 
Jurgen is certainly a fine tool if you need to save the heads, for 
example if they have been glued on incorrectly or wrongly bored and 
need to be adjusted, but for a new hammer-head job it is not 
necessary.  I use a pair of 6" end nippers, the same as I use for 
centring.  I fitted new hammers to a Steinway this week and removed 
the old heads this way.  It is important not to split the hammer tail 
in the centre to start with, since that way you can split the shank. 
Instead split the tail longitudinally at a tangent to the shank.  I 
then usually crush the moulding across the grain using the nippers 
just above the shank and then the shank can be twisted out with no 
effort.  Very little glue or moulding wood is left on the shank and 
this can usually be quickly scraped off with a knife.  Besides, the 
end of the shank is not crushed, as it is with the press tool, 
especially if the hammers are tightly glued on.

JD



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090627/929fe3bc/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: sorby_nippers.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 62322 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090627/929fe3bc/attachment-0001.jpg>


More information about the pianotech mailing list

This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC