>I am reconditioning a Williams upright piano that has Billings flanges. Can >someone confirm for me that the correct method of aligning hammers to >strings with this flange is to heat the shank as one would do on a brass >rail action? > >Terry Beckingham Years back, when I was doing a lot of players, the supply house replacements for the butts and Billings flanges were so wildly erratic that I made a couple of experimental tools to try to space and travel these hummers. The spacing tool proved to be a bust, since there wasn't enough vertical brass flat to get a tool onto and bend without trashing the center. I had to be content with aligning shanks as I glued them in. Working with existing shanks, I just heated them as you suggested, but I never really liked the process or the results. The traveling tool, however, worked great! It slipped over the top of the flange (mounted on the rail, butt, hammer, and all), and wedged on so I could twist the flange into alignment. Took about a half hour to travel a whole set of really nasty looking alignments into something quite presentable. If only the spacer had worked, I might have been famous as the Billings King of South Central Kansas. Alas. Ron N
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