leverage and touchweight

[doug condit]

Dear Mr.. Hunt,

Thank you for your kind response.  It would be amazing if I had done what I 
have with no input from a piano technician.  I have actually worked for a 
piano technician since I was a freshman in high school.  It was because it 
took so long to take the upweight and downweight measurements that we 
started discussing the idea to automate the measurements.

I met Mr.. Stanwood last year.  He actually came to International Science 
and Engineering fair in Detroit and saw my project.  He was speaking to the 
ptg there.  Because you forwarded my email to him, he has renewed our 
conversation. I appreciate your encouragement. And my device does measure 
down weight and up weight and calculates the balance weight and friction 
weight from those measurements.


>From: Newton Hunt <nhunt@optonline.net>
>Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
>To: pianotech@ptg.org, doug condit <dougcondit@hotmail.com>,        David 
>Stanwood <Stanwood@tiac.net>
>Subject: Re: leverage and touchweight
>Date: Tue, 01 May 2001 23:41:12 -0400
>
>Hi Doug,
>
>What a wonderful devise you have come up with.  Having that information can 
>be quite
>useful.  With what you have described you might also be able to determine 
>the amount
>of gram force required to depress a key to just before let-off begins and 
>also how
>much the key will lift from the beginning of let-off to near rest position 
>of the
>key.  How far down a key goes and tghe amount of after touch is veryh 
>important btu
>for action analysis the up and down weight, the averge and half the 
>difference are
>esential analysis information for us.
>
>We spend a lot of time taking these measurements and  a few others as well.
>
>I think you have done a magnificent job without any guidance from those of 
>us who are
>in the field and I am impressed.
>
>There are those who are true gurus of this aspect of piano work and I 
>especially
>recommend you speak with David Stanwood <Stanwood@tiac.net> who can help 
>you develop
>your ideas even further.
>
>Very well done indeed.
>
>		Newton Hunt
>		New Jersey
>
>doug condit wrote:
> >
> > To the list,
> > I am a high school student who had made a computer automated device 
>which
> > measures the Active touch depth (key dip minus aftertouch)of all 88 keys 
>of
> > a piano action in less than an hour, and calculates the leverage from 
>this.
> > The device takes 3 samples of each key.  If there is a deviation of more
> > than .001" it takes three more samples and averages the numbers. It also
> > takes the touchweigh of the action. This information is collected and
> > graphed so the information is very accessible and easily saved so a 
>record
> > can be kept on the history of each piano tested and worked on. I am
> > competing at International Science and Engineering Fair in San Jose
> > california next week and I need feedback from professionals in this 
>field on
> > the importance of these measurements and how useful this type of device
> > would be to technicians who rebuild and or regulate actions.   I would
> > appreciate any responses, as this is important to my project.  Thank 
>your
> > for your time.
> >
> > Respectfully,
> > Doug Condit
> > _________________________________________________________________
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