[CAUT] Digest, Vol 1103, Issue 85 Moving Wippen Rail

[Richard Brekne]

There have been several articles written through the years on this 
subject. One in particular I remember deals with the B +/- discussion 
quite a bit.  There was some credence in that article given to the 
thought that the jack could be just a very slight bit off perpendicular 
so as to rotate through the friction moment...  but still the window 
here is quite small.

In anycase, moving the whippen rail is a matter of creating this 
alignment and not a matter of changing touch weight.

But to the question ric posses.  Assuming a given blow distance yields a 
hammer shank angle at rest, which then in turn yields a jack angle (and 
whippen spread) at rest. The position of the whippen center then also 
becomes <<fixed>> and your whippen cushion height can be changed to meet 
the capstan so that they satisfy the magic line between the whippen 
center and balance rail pin.  

I suppose an enlightened enough person could use this to change the 
required key dip to achieve good letoff, drop, jack travel, etc for a 
given blow if one felt the need to change key dip... hadnt thought along 
these lines but it seems on the surface of it reasonable.  Too early in 
the day to ponder this and I have piles of stuff what needs doing, but 
this is worth some thought I suppose.

Cheers
RicB


         >Another question, is it best to have the jack start out at 90
        degrees to the
         >shank, or is it better to have the jack pass through 90
        degrees to the shank
         >at, say, half blow.


    I think it's more advantageous to have the jack center aligned on a
    perpendicular
    line from the shank at the knuckle core. There was a series of
    Journal  articles
    a few years back on "Action Elevations" which touched on this.

    Regards,

    Jon Page