[pianotech] adding weights

[Dean May]

I made a little over $50/hr shop time, more really, because my younger kids
did much of the work of pulling hammers off, gluing Ecsaine on, etc. I
focused on the weights and overseeing the kids. The piano is in otherwise
very nice condition and has a beautiful cabinet. It is in a small church,
and you gotta figure their replacement cost would be $4k or so. It took them
2 years to approve spending $500 on the repair and another $500 on a climate
control system. Imagine how long it would have taken them to approve a $4k
purchase? 

 

Dean

Dean W May                        (812) 235-5272 voice and text

PianoRebuilders.com           (888) DEAN-MAY         

Terre Haute IN 47802           Give us a LIKE on Facebook! Go to
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PianoRebuilders.com

  _____  

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of David Boyce
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2012 7:38 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] adding weights

 

 

Dean, that was a considerable degree of technical expertise, and work,
invested in a Wurlitzer console! I hope it was financially worthwhile. If it
was, why would the owner spend the money on the Wurlitzer console instead of
a new piano?!

Best regards,

David.
www.davidboyce.co.uk




 

Subject was 30 year old Wurly console. Complaint was intermittent sluggish
keys. 

 This was a multiple problem child. The presenting problem was jacks not
resetting. It had the nasty felt for the knuckles and backchecks which
contributed to excess friction on the jack. Then downweight was in the low
40 gr range and upweight was less than 20. I find that that kind of low
upweight causes problems. It just isn't enough to get things reset. 

 I changed out knuckles and backchecks to Ecsaine to improve friction. Then
I added about a 10 gram weight into the back of the key and about a 4 gram
fishing line weight to the bridle strap wire. I also reduced hammer spring
tension slightly and damper spring tension until I was measuring around 25g
at damper head. Reducing these spring tensions helped keep downweight from
going up too much by adding the key/wippen weights. The results were down
weights around 50g and upweights in the mid to upper 20g. 

I added a drop of thick CA after crimping the weight just for a little
insurance. 

 

The improvement was huge. A very responsive action. This is the first one
that I've done adding the keyweights and wippen weights.

 





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