[CAUT] Tip of the Year Revisted

[Ted Sambell]

Re: [CAUT] Tip of the Year RevistedAnother method is to run the end of the shanks up and down the edge of the blade of a cambination square, but this requires a good bench top and that the action stack be off the kays. Travelling them before hanging the hammers should be the rule, not merely a good idea. The order is to travel, twist (burn) and space.

Ted Sambell
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Fred Sturm 
  To: caut 
  Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2007 10:52 PM
  Subject: Re: [CAUT] Tip of the Year Revisted


  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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