Hi All I just read the Central West Regional News and Trevor Nelson had some very positive things to say about the sharing of ideas we all input to fellow guild members.  I am proud to be in an organization which doesn't selfishly hold on to "secrets" to appear better than another tech.  As he states, "It's easy to forget that in most other parts of the world, such a fertile exchange of ideas doesn't take place, because our profession is extremely tradition-bound; or, piano technicians are reticent to share their work "secrets" with each other... Think of how long it would take one technician to come up with a better tool or technique, compared to two or four.  How about four hundred? or four thousand?" This subject is facinating to me as I use the "align my eyeball with the plane of the jack/knuckle, but as Fred states, to have your "eyeball sighting" not perfectly lined up the same way every time can indeed skew the result.  The hammers under the pinblock method is tempting and I might try it and then double check with my eyeball method to see just how much variance of consistancy shows up.  What we all want in the end is a consistant feel for the pianist.  It is he/she that we all really work for. Best, Paul T Williams UNL <table width=100%> <tr valign=top> <td width=40%>Tim Coates <tcoates1@sio.midco.net> Sent by: caut-bounces@ptg.org 08/07/2007 10:48 PM <table border> <tr valign=top> <td bgcolor=white> <div align=center>Please respond to College and University Technicians <caut@ptg.org></div></table> <td width=59%> <table width=100%> <tr valign=top> <td> <div align=right>To</div> <td>College and University Technicians <caut@ptg.org> <tr valign=top> <td> <div align=right>cc</div> <td> <tr valign=top> <td> <div align=right>Subject</div> <td>Re: [CAUT] Black on Black... (Jack alignment)</table> <table> <tr valign=top> <td> <td></table> </table> Fred, I think if you re-read Michael Wathen's comments he attributes this method to "Garlick".  For those who are too young to remember, that would be Bill Garlick.    A person who used to be a very valuable member of the PTG.    For me, you are wrong about the rapid flick motion.  But you can do that if you want.  You know what works best for you.  It's nice to have a good exchange of ideas without one person judging and insisting they have the only correct answer.   Tim Coates On Aug 7, 2007, at 7:13 PM, Fred Sturm wrote:     I do like Michael Wathen’s method if it’s used for finding cheating jacks. Very convenient not to have to hold your finger or hand on each hammer. And I’ll suggest that a rapid flick motion rather than a hard press is best to find those borderline cases. Fast as you can, but not necessarily much force, will find them best.