Damaged Piano -- Update

[Baldwin Yamaha Piano Centre]

Hi Jeff,
            Take the keys out and bar clamp them, for a week with good air 
circulation.  You may get lucky and straighten the whole mess out.

Roger


At 03:25 PM 8/22/02 -0400, you wrote:
>I've pulled the action and brought it to my shop.  Luckily, there appears
>to be no moisture in the action stack (loosy goosy) and the hammers are
>fine, but the keysticks from D18 to F#34 may be gone.  I'm afraid the
>keyframe may be beyond repair.  Interestingly, the bass cheekblock shows a
>lot of moisture damage to the finish, and the endpin is rusting, but the
>first 17 keys move freely.  The keybed is very wet, and the moisture has
>been there long enough for mildew to begin to form (which, in 75%+ humidity
>for the last 3 months could have been just waiting to happen anyway).  It
>also looks like the music desk may have limited the amount of water to the
>pinblock area to just a few drops.  The felt under the strings near the
>pins doesn't feel damp to the touch, and the dampers appear to have avoided
>getting wet as well.  There is no evidence of water seepage from looking
>beneath the pinblock.  The amount of water I described as "standing on the
>plate" was probably no more than a tablespoon in the little serial number
>triangle, with maybe a half a teaspoon near the pins at the break.  I am
>not sure if this is "all that is left" or "all there ever was" of the water
>in the pinblock area.  If relatively good pitch is any indication, we may
>be ok here.
>
>I am beginning artificial resusci...resussi...rescuss....CPR on the keys
>and frame, just in case.  Should I leave the keys on the frame in hopes
>that they will be held in shape by the pins?  or take them out of the frame
>and take my chances on what interesting shapes come out?  I expect that
>leaving them on the frame would significantly slow drying time and trap
>moisture, especially in the mortise areas, making the potential for new
>growth more likely.  But I'm going to start out that way until I get some
>ideas from you guys.
>
>I'm guessing a low wattage (like 8 watts -- yes I still have an old one)
>Dampp Chaser hung under the keyframe wouldn't be a good idea?  I've got it
>laying on a hand truck horizontally with a box fan blowing across it set on
>low.
>
>Jeff
>
>Jeff Tanner
>Piano Technician
>School of Music
>813 Assembly ST
>University of South Carolina
>Columbia, SC 29208
>(803)-777-4392
>jtanner@mozart.sc.edu

Roger