[CAUT] TIP OF THE YEAR!/ 4 books

[Jim Busby]

Hi Mark,

I second that nomination. I took a stack that was traveled the "old" way
and saw so much more was needed when I turned it over. Great tip!

Hey Fred, I'd pay big bucks for the first copy of your book! 

Four books I'd like to see; (I'd gladly pay, say, $1,000.00 for a copy.)
1. Fred Sturm's Complete Manual of Piano Servicing and Repair
2. Ron Nossaman's Technical Guide to Functional Piano "Re-design"
3. Del Fandrich; Piano Designers Secrets of the Craft, Revealed...
(Oooo)
4. Alan McCoy; Encyclopedia of Influential technicians of the 20th
Century. Including Notes, Tips, and Memoirs from; Fred Drasche, Del
Fandrich, Ron Nossaman, Fred Sturm, Ted Sambell, Ben McLeveen, Jim
Colman Sr., George Defebaugh, etc. etc. etc. (Kind of a "The Piano Book"
for tech junkies)

Yes. I AM serious!... :-)

Jim Busby

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Mark Cramer
Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2006 3:38 PM
To: CAUT
Cc: Trevor Nelson; Robert Haist; Ted Sambell; Albert Picknell; Mark
Cramer
Subject: [CAUT] TIP OF THE YEAR!

I would like to nominate and thank Fred Sturm, for what I humbly
consider
the BEST TIP shared this year;

"Upside-down flange-travelling" (lay the stack hammers face down, then
rock
it between hammer-rest and let-off contact to observe hammer travel)

With Fred's method, it was easy to get accurate results the very first
time,
and I soon noticed a relationship between the lateral movement of the
hammers, and thickness of my favourite travel tape (3M #651 Post-it:
Correction & Cover-up tape);

i.e.: 1mm travel = 1 full strip of travel tape... 1/2mm travel = 1/2
strip,
etc.

My assistants love it! Anything that makes a routine task fun without
sacrificing precision is win-win. Nonetheless we still do a final
paranoia
visual-check with the stack right-side up.

A further bonus is that Fred's method seems to work equally well
pre-travelling new shanks:

New shanks often have a vertical line through the end of the shank. By
transfering these lines to the bench, then tilting/propping the action
at
let-off contact, it's possible to "one-time" all your flange travelling,
just by measuring/observing the deflection from the original lines.
(I'll
attach a photo)

And I guess the final benchmark with any new tip is longevity. Suffice
it to
say, after how many months using Fred's method, no-one here has any
interest
in going back to "old school."

So "thanks Fred" for sharing this valuable tip, and to everyone who
participated in our CAUT discussions all year. I've learned much, saved
myself some potentially frustating mistakes and  been kindly provoked to
re-think more than one of my tired old opinions. ;>)

Best wishes to all,
Mark Cramer,
Brandon University