[CAUT] Tip of the Year Revisted

[Keith Roberts]

Hi Fred,
If you hang a hammer on shank that isn't traveled properly and you spend a
lot of time getting it square to the world, when you travel the shank right,
you have to burn or rehang. If you have a method that travels them
precisely, far less work later.
There is no problem with looking over the hammers or lighting when looking
at the stick. I prefer using the pencil only where I need it. When you look
at the  shank, draw a line where you need it, draw another on the other side
if you aren't certain. Don't try and watch for hammer movement you get
dizzy. Look at how it is centered in or next to the marks and then move the
hammers to the other end of the stroke and check to see if it is still in
the same place. Then you eliminate any movement at all. Less than a small
thin pencil line is possible to see. You can't see that when you turn the
stack over and check the work when the hammers are on. Traveled is traveled,
it doesn't matter how you getthere. As you say you have the stack off and
are checking and fixing stuff as you go and we know you can spend forever on
any one aspect so we fix the worst and move on. The first thing that happens
in my mentors shop is it gets hammers and they aren't put on old shanks.
Usually. I was looking at 7 or 8 sets out and ready to be prepped and hung I
hope I can spring the time to do a few complete ones.

Thanks for the tip. In the Guy Nichols more bang for your buck attitude,
that is the way that gets a good job done fast and doesn't require extra set
up. It all in how you fit it into the procedure too.

Keith




On 3/25/07, Fred Sturm <fssturm at unm.edu> wrote:
>
> Hi Keith,
>     A pre-travel of un-hung shanks is definitely a good idea, and I'm 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.
> I'll 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 couldn't 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. I'll give your method a go next
> time I am installing a new set of shanks, and see if I think it is more
> efficient.
>     I'm a little confused by a couple of your statements. If movement is
> greater at the hammerhead than at the shank, wouldn't 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 you're 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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