Hi Fred, Silicon?? How do you know? I know that Yamaha uses some silicon (or at least used to, according to LaRoy) in their flange bushing cloth. But isn't that for lubrication? And if it indeed is silicon in the VS, wouldn't that be a death blow if someone used it in the wrong place. i.e. anywhere near or closely connected to a tuning pin? If it is true maybe a warning label is appropriate? BTW, since you taught us the steaming method in addition to whatever, I've too have found more stability than with any solution alone. Regards, Fred -----Original Message----- From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Fred Sturm Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 8:08 AM To: caut University Technicians Subject: [CAUT] VSProfelt vs alcohol/water/softener vs steam I finally found the opportunity to do a comparison of VSProfelt with an emulated mixture of alcohol, water, and fabric softener. I did wippen cushions and key bushings on an upright. For the key bushings, I also did a comparison with my usual steam method. My emulated mixture was approximately 12% softener, 18% alcohol, and 70% water (the figures are a result of adding to a 5 mm line for softener, 15 mm with 70% isolpropyl alcohol, and 40 with water - those lines being cumulative. This was not utterly precise, just a convenient guess, and then I did the calculations of percentage). I think the VSProfelt is actually lower in alcohol and higher in softener, and it also has silicon oil added in some formulation. VSP is milkier looking than what I made, and it doesn't wick quite as fast into the felt - hence my guess about more softener and less alcohol. Results? A tie. VSP works quite nicely. So does a mix of alcohol, water and softener. I couldn't tell any difference in the results whatsoever, other than the lubricant in VSP. The tie was between VSP and my emulation solution. Steam was significantly faster, and slightly more effective - key bushings only in this case. I think the more effective part came from the steam re- expanding the wood where it might have been squeezed/eased previously. For the bushings I had the keys in two Spurlock clamps. I applied the liquids using a tapered, pointed paintbrush (in preference to a hypo oiler, that takes longer because of the need to apply to each side separately). I did one key clamp with liquids, the other with steam. For the liquids, I alternated between sharps and naturals for the different solutions, changing the alternation when I changed from balance to front rail. The full steaming and ironing process took considerably less time than applying the liquids and inserting the cauls. I'll send a separate post following with photos of the steam process. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico fssturm at unm.edu
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