[CAUT] Tip of the Year Revisted

[Fred Sturm]

Hi Keith,
    A pre-travel of un-hung shanks is definitely a good idea, and I¹m sure
the lined stick works well. I use the upside down method as a standard
procedure whenever I am doing a thorough recondition/prep type operation.
I¹ll be pulling the stack anyway, to brush and iron (and maybe teflon) wipp
felt, to iron letoff button felt, to polish and lube capstans (rag, Flitz,
McLube), maybe to pull keys and steam and re-size bushings (or re-bush),
yadda, yadda. Brushing the knuckles is much more convenient in that upside
down position, too. And checking shanks for pinning is a breeze with stack
off and various angling and swinging operations. I have yet to find a stack
with travel I couldn¹t improve using this method. Including stacks I had
meticulously traveled and been very proud of.
    With just shanks, no hammers in the way of the eyes, a lined stick can
be seen readily. Looking over the hammers, though, it gets tricky to have
your eye in the right angle.
    In any case, we all try lots of things and end up with what we find
works most efficiently for our own styles. I¹ll give your method a go next
time I am installing a new set of shanks, and see if I think it is more
efficient.
    I¹m a little confused by a couple of your statements. If movement is
greater at the hammerhead than at the shank, wouldn¹t using the hammerhead
as reference give a finer adjustment (though I prefer to look at the very
end of the shank through the hammerhead molding ­ but same geometry)? And
where does burning shanks come into play? Unless it is that with
well-travelled shanks, a square hammer is a square hammer, so you just hang
it right and you¹re done. No quarrel there.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico

    
On 3/25/07, Keith Roberts <keithspiano at gmail.com> wrote:
> I did a few more shank travelings and I found that the movement at the hammer
> head is far larger than the movement at the shank. Using the stick and
> clothespin method, a movement of a thick pencil line on the stick was the
> equivelent of a mm to a 1/16 inch. On a piano that shanks hadn't been traveled
> properly before hanging the hammers, flipping the stack over works great.
> BUT.. 
>  
> On a piano I am going to hang hammers, the stick method works so well and is
> so easy, I don't have to travel any of the shanks after I hang the set. It
> saves so much burning and on this set I hung yesterday you can pick up the
> hammers with a straight edge under the tails and they all sit flat on the
> surface and don't move sideways as you move them up and down. I spaced them
> evenly and all of a sudden this piano lines up. You know, all the ducks are in
> a row, nice, neat and orderly.
> You need to try this Fred.
> Once you have the sticks made you may never go back.
> You don't have to pull the stack, jack.
> 
> Keith Roberts
> 
> 


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