damper guide rail cloth?

[Mark Cramer]

Good afternoon John,

Pianotek has 5 thicknesses of what I consider to be really nice bushing
cloth. I cut a 1" strip of each thickness, and taper each to a point. Now
you have 5 bushing-cloth gauges:

Thread each through a clean bushing hole til the sides of the cloth meet,
and you have a nice fit to the wire. You now have the correct cloth
thickness (in 5 attempts or less), and the approximate width you will
need,..okay, within a thread pull or so.

You should be able to find a combination of these 5 sizes to make
double-bushings. I apologize I have no record of the combinations I've used.
The experimenting can be done "dry," but once you begin, the outer cloth
should be methanol sized to a caul, and fully dry before bushing the inside
( i.e.: o-nite ). If you wish to use glue, the outer bushing would be the
one, though it isn't necessary.

After rummaging through nails, pop-rivets, etc. to find something of a
dimension suitable for an "outer-bushing caul," I ended up using wooden
dowel ( 3/16"? ). These were cut to 1" lengths, sanded one end to a bullet
nose, and saved for subsequent jobs. For the inner layer, you will use
bridge pins and methanol size (Everclear,Hooch, "whatevahh"), as per usual.

BTW, recall the Susan Graham hint for final sizing? The bridge pin is fit to
the collet of a low temp. soldering iron. Afterwards, I give the bushings a
sip of Protek, not so much for the "lube" factor, but in belief this
treatment may slow the transfer of moisture to/from the cloth. I'm open to
correction, if someone is otherwise enlightened.

John, I've been very pleased with the stability using these methods. A
freshly re-bushed guide rail with it's perfectly-sized, perfectly-round
holes, is a real "thing of beauty" IMHO, and one of the most satisfying
tasks I know of. A rail to be "double-bushed" only prolongs the joy!

kind regards,
Mark Cramer,
Brandon University


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-caut@ptg.org [mailto:owner-caut@ptg.org]On Behalf Of John
Minor
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 9:29 AM
To: caut@ptg.org
Subject: damper guide rail cloth?


I'm rebuilding a 1965 Steinway L with *2* pieces of bushing cloth in the
damper guide rail. The outer felt is conventional red bushing cloth and
the inner felt is a soft brown material of unknown composition.

Anyone have a dependable solution for replacing this felt?

John Minor
University of Illinois