[CAUT] Bushing cloth thickness

[Porritt, David]

Ed:

 

How old are these Steinways with 0.162" front rail pins?  

 

dp

 

_______________________

David M. Porritt, RPT

dporritt at smu.edu

 

From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
A440A at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 10:08 AM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Bushing cloth thickness

 

Fred asks, 



Do you use cauls different from  Spurlock's standard sizes? I find they
require considerably thinner cloth than .053. <<


     For Steinways, I use the stock felt with spring clamps on the
balance rail, and, usually, .162" cauls  on the fronts.  For max.
longevity, I try to avoid thick glue and heavy clamping pressure, as I
feel that it basically turns the back of the cloth into an inflexible
matrix, leaving less actual cloth to absorb the force of keys hitting
the pins. 
I once mixed up some hide glue, very thick, and began gluing the various
felts to wood.  I then thinned it down, and glued the same felts.  Then,
thinner yet.   It appeared that the thick glue captured more of the felt
when pressure was applied, effectively rendering the "felt" to be
thinner while supported by a much thicker glue/felt base.  It also made
it more difficult to remove. 
Since I am now rebuilding actions I did 20-25 years ago here at
Vanderbilt, I really enjoy the ease of removing backrail cloth, damper
felt, upstop rails, etc. that I glued with thin hide glue so long ago.  
hope that helps,
regards, 








About humidity effects, It seems like the felt is a bigger factor, as
high humidity yields sluggishness. The idea being that felt will swell,
closing the gap, while the gap becomes wider due to expansion of the
entire key (or button). I guess if there is crushed wood, though, that
would tend to swell in high humidity, also closing the gap (kind of like
what I imagine happens with pinblocks and loose pins).
Regards,









Ed Foote RPT



**************************************
Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at
http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20070731/a893e40e/attachment.html