Teflon bushings

[Horace Greeley]

Fred,

This all tallies precisely with my own experience.  I would spring for
the better reamers, as I think they allow a much better chance for
success.

Too bad; another good product, poorly introduced, poorly supported for
too long to be successful.

sigh.

Cheers!

Horace



At 09:37 AM 01/04/2000 +0000, you wrote:
>I seem to have clocked out for the holidays before many of the rest of
>you, so am rather late in getting to this thread. I have just a couple
>things to add.
>         First, I certainly concur with Del Fandrich and Horace Greeley 
> that the
>final teflon bushing product - the fat ones with the ridges - is quite
>serviceable, and quite possibly an improvement over felt. Oh, well! One
>caveat: machining must be precise to obtain the proper friction. I
>purchased the Steinway kit (about $40) from Steinway years ago, and it
>has .048, .049, .050 and .051 reamers. These are, in my experience,
>slightly too small, and produce too high a friction - three half swings
>in the high treble. I have dealt with this problem in an unsatisfactory
>way, "wallering" the reamers about in Newton Hunt's very apt parlance. I
>expect the .0005 tolerance straight reamers would solve the problem.
>Just haven't been motivated to pay the $$$. Are the ones supplied by
>Pianotek worth it? (multiple flutes, precision sized, etc?)
>         The other comments I have concern the small, smooth teflon bushings,
>which I have the misfortune to deal with in my 12 B's of late 60's
>vintage. I have found many clicks originate between bushing and wood,
>easily solved by replacing with the ridged model (and a bit of glue
>sizing where appropriate). Changing to the larger size teflon seems
>rather troublesome to me: very difficult to maintain perfect alignment
>when drilling, leading to likely travelling problems. Maybe with a well
>made jig . . . but I hope to replace all the parts some time within the
>next ten years (at least I finally have a parts budget, however
>inadequate).
>
>Regards,
>Fred Sturm, RPT
>University of New Mexico