Fred, I like your 'water and then iron' technique for getting the punchings level. Most excellent. I'l give it a try. The dimple problem in a nightmare, especially if the jack contact is off center, when one sets L.O.T. I like to dab on the Teflon with a 2" fine hair China bristle brush...very quick. Dan Reed Dallas, Tx On Mar 16, 2009, at 4:43 PM, Fred Sturm wrote: > On Mar 15, 2009, at 10:25 AM, Ron Nossaman wrote: > >> For what is costs in time and materials to replace them, I don't see >> much justification for trying to save worn letoff punchings. The >> aggravation factor alone in trying to regulate anything less than >> uniform thickness is worth replacement. For me, at least. >> Ron N > > For me, it's a judgment call. Replacing the punchings doesn't take > that long, maybe 20 minutes by the time you have saturated them to > loosen the glue, taken them off, fired up the glue pot, and put on the > new. OTOH, it takes me about 5 minutes to run a sand paddle over a > set, blow off the fibers, brush on a bit of water, follow with a > clothes iron, and lay on some teflon (using a pipecleaner, laying it > along a bunch and rolling to transfer the material). > I start by assessing a sample. I might just iron one and see if it > goes flat. If there is enough dimple, I'll add some water to the > picture (apply with a brush, then apply the iron to make steam). If > the dimple is still there, I figure I'll sand enough to take the rest > of the punching down to that level, so I work accordingly, and as > described above. > If the dimples are quite deep, I replace. This is typically when I > replace other parts. But if I am in a hurry and cutting corners, I > might just do the sanding routine. When it's routine, on-going > re-conditioning, I'll typically do the sanding thing (or just steam > and iron, if sanding isn't needed). > In any case, I keep harping on this because of the regulation hassle > if they aren't level. I have the impression that a lot of people don't > pay attention to this, based on the number of stories of how the > regulation changes supposedly because of humidity change or whatever. > I'm not saying humidity doesn't affect regulation, but when you have > an article in the Journal (a couple years back) saying you need letoff > on a concert grand to be 1/8" for a safety factor, somebody is doing > something wrong, IMO. My guess is the big missing/ignored factor is > those dimpled regulation punchings. > Regards, > Fred Sturm > University of New Mexico > fssturm at unm.edu > >
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