[CAUT] Tired wippens

[ed440 at mindspring.com]

When I was a salaried CAUT the parts budget was used up quickly but my salary kept running. Rather than twiddle my thumbs I reconditioned old wippens, releathered old knuckles and rebushed old flanges. Better that than let things deteriorate for another 30 years.
By the way, last I heard the budget cuts in Louisiana (ULM) were so steep that the electricity is cut off from Friday afternoon to Monday morning.  Maybe someone should start a "Send a piana to Louisiana" program.
Ed Sutton


-----Original Message-----
>From: Alan McCoy <amccoy at mail.ewu.edu>
>Sent: Nov 14, 2006 4:31 PM
>To: "College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>" <caut at ptg.org>
>Subject: Re: [CAUT] Tired wippens
>
>Paul,
>
>Part of the answer to this is how does this piano fit into the priorities
>you have for your stable of pianos. You only have so much dough. If this is
>lower on the list, it won't get the wippens. You also only have so much
>time. If you can get these back into "decent" shape without spending too
>much of your valuable time, that might be the thing to do with this piano,
>if, again, it makes sense given your priority for this piano/venue.
>
>I would never spend the time reconditioning a set of old wippens. Too much
>time spent for meager results, especially so if the wips are designed for
>shanks with 15mm knuckles.
>
>My 2c.
>
>Alan
>
>
>> From: Paul T Williams <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu>
>> Reply-To: "College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>" <caut at ptg.org>
>> Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 13:27:34 -0600
>> To: <caut at ptg.org>
>> Subject: Re: [CAUT] Tired wippens
>> 
>> Hi List,
>> 
>> Here's an old question from a new CAUT:  When does one finally call it
>> quits on a set of wippens?  I'm working on an old Steinway M circa early
>> thirties with the tilted capstans.  I would doubt that the wippens are
>> original, but they are definately OLD, squeeky and has substantial amounts
>> of what Steve Brady calls "gradeau" (gunk) on the rep springs at the
>> rep-lever contact/rubbing points.  They also are "dented" in on the rep
>> lever/knuckle contact point.
>> 
>> Although it is only in a practice room, we don't have ooodles o dough to
>> replace the piano.  We can afford new wippens, or I can "doctor" them one
>> more time by cleaning and lubing all those parts which would be a lot of
>> invested time...Not much I can do about the dented rep/knuckle spot
>> though....
>> 
>> What do y'all think?
>> 
>> Thanks
>> 
>> Paul T. Williams
>> Univ. of Nebraska
>
>