pounding felt punchings (was tissue paper punchings)

Diane Hofstetter dianepianotuner@hotmail.com
Wed, 26 Jul 2000 22:16:48 PDT


My dad used to store his balance rail punchings on a long rod that was 
threaded on both ends.  At the ends were washers and nuts that kept the felt 
punchings compressed so the key level wouldn't go out so soon.

I've also heard of ironing the punchings.  All I do is tap the assembled 
felt, paper punchings and key with an old wooden thread spool centered over 
the balance rail pin.  I hit the spool with a small hammer; this settles 
everything in and frequently requires more punchings be added.  I believe I 
achieve stability sooner this way.

Diane



Hi Roger,

Interesting you should bring this up...

You wrote:
 > Walloping the felt punching with a hammer on a hard surface, is 
preferable
 > to removing material.

I've seen another tech doing this on occasion.  I was never taught to do
this, and had already been swapping punchings for a year or two before I saw
it, so it's not a habit I picked up.

What I wondered about was... do those punchings that get 'walloping'
maintain their smaller dimension pretty faithfully, or do they tend to
return to where they were before the walloping?  I can't remember ever
seeing or hearing the question or the answer.

Any thoughts?

Brian Trout
Quarryville, PA
btrout@desupernet.net


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