All, One great advantage to the methanol is it is instantaneous. (No "drying time") Protek can also give varying results. When it dries the parts may even be worse than before. (rarely, but it can happen if the parts are older or corroded) Although a couple months ago I had a call to tune a B for one of the Julliard pianist visiting a small town and all the flanges were 0 - 1 swings! Of course they called me 2 hours before the performance (!*^#@!!) and there was NO aftertouch, etc. They didn't even know how many years it had been since the last tuning. I decided to Protek them (clp). While I pitch raised and tuned they loosened up to 4-5 swings for the most part. After quickly raising the hammerline and doing some other quick voodoo to get the best regulation within the 30 minutes I had left, the fellow came, played, and said he liked it... The next day the flanges were still at 4-5!! A week later I checked, out of curiosity, and they were still good. Go figure. Jim Busby -----Original Message----- From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of Fred Sturm Sent: Friday, December 19, 2003 8:11 AM To: College and University Technicians Subject: Re: Touch weight --On Friday, December 19, 2003 9:54 AM -0500 Wimblees@aol.com wrote: > > I was going to work on the keys first, making sure they are free of any > friction. I was going to spray Teflon on the balance rail at both the top > and bottom, and spray the front bushing cloths. If there is still some > friction, carefully ease the bushings. Next I was going to spray the > wippen cushions. Last I was going to check hammer flange pinning. I do > this by setting the action on a cradle, and doing the swing test, trying > to get all the hammers to swing evenly. > I have, in the past, repinned those that were not giving me at least 5 > swings. I have, on occasion, used protek to loosen up the pinning. But > now you say I should use small amounts o methanol, instead of protek. > What is the difference, and why? > Wim Wim, The Steinway "Permafree II" action centers are impregnated with a teflon solution, which lubricates and provides additional firmness. We had quite a bit of discussion of this over the past couple months, with respect to firmness versus friction. No other manufacturer uses this method. Most others are pure, "unadulterated" felt, some have graphite applied to one surface. All others will respond to lubrication with Protek, and/or to shrinking/sizing with alcohol/water. Steinway will not respond to either, due to that impregnation with teflon. Pure methanol, a controlled substance, is available (at least in colder climes) as gas line "de-freezer." Eric Schandall says he thinks ethanol will work as well. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico _______________________________________________ caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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