loose/tight flanges

[Fred Sturm]

Take the stack off the frame. Holding it at an appropriate angle, swing
the whole stack (you can prop one end on a table for this) and see which
are freest, which tightest. Take samples of freest and tightest off and
use swing test or gram gauge. That'll tell you where you are. 
	If the "average" ones are in a good ballpark, you can just address the
ones that are out of sync. I find that once I have found that "average"
I can set one end of the stack on the floor, have all hammers swung
forward (stack perpendicular to ground), then slowly tilt toward ground.
It's easy to pick out which are falling back fast, and which are
sluggish. Similar procedure for wipps, but with different angles and
hammers swung out of the way.
	But in situations where quality really matters, I usually end up just
repinning the whole set. WIth Mannino's broaches, this has become a
fairly easy, efficient job.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico

Wimblees@aol.com wrote:
> 
> I know how to correct the problem, but is there an easier way, other
> than taking each of them off the rail one at a time, to check the
> tightness of grand hammer flanges? Or, for that matter, the wippen
> flanges?
> 
> WIm