Air Hammer revisited

[Farrell]

Hey Carl. Thanks for the input. Interesting. Questions/comments interspersed
below:

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl Meyer" <cmpiano@home.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2001 11:07 PM
Subject: Re: Air Hammer revisited


> Jeannie, Farrel, Tom and all you other air heads, I mean hammer heads, I
> mean whoever:

Da, er, um, hey, who you talkin' to????

> I bought a Danair nailer and then ordered a 7/8 inch sleeve to cover my
> intermediate punch that I described.
>
> I talked to the sales manager of Danair and he described the special tip
for
> Baldwin.
>
> The basic nailer tips plunger is about 1/4 inch in diameter.

21/64" to be exact. Plenty of room for tuning pins.

> The sleeve  in various diameters is spring loaded. Normally the sleeve is
> short enough that the nail will be driven below the surface.
>
> Now the problem with the stock sleeve is that you can't see how deep the
pin
> is being driven.

Unless you do something like just stick a little rubber extension on it so
that you stop when the rubber extension touches the plate.

> The modification was to provide a sleeve that was 3/4 inch longer that the
> driving piston.  Now you could drive pins to a depth exactly 3/4 inch from
> the block or plate.

I would think this to be a tad limiting as there are variations among tuning
pins regarding the exact distance from becket hole to pin top. Also, what if
you were pounding into an open faced pinblock? You would likely want the
coils a tad closer to the block.

> It had a slot so that the string would be free of the sleeve if you were
to
> put the coil on the pin before driving.  That would prevent the sleeve
from
> damaging the wire.

Interesting. The engineer in you I gather?

> Now consider that you drive the pin in to 3/4 inch height and now you
string
> with three turns. Further driving with this sleeve is impossible.  You
were
> limited to 3/4 inch, remember?  You would have to now change the sleeve to
> drive the pin deeper.  Not practical!

Does this mean that your 3/4" sleeve was NOT spring loaded? If it is not
spring loaded (or even if it is) that hammer REALLY hammers! Would not the
steel tip hammering away on the plate do quite a bit of damage to the plate
finish? It seems to me that my little rubber dangly thing ever so gently
kissing the plate is much safer. (Why is it that we always feel OUR way is
the BEST? - Really, though - just trying to understand and learn!)

> If you have chipped the piano you need to use the schaff tool no:108
(tuning
> pin setter) to prevent the string from going flat.  Just another
operation.
> Time consuming!

I don't understand what you are getting at here. Are you talking about
pounding pins after you chip piano? Why would someone do that?

> I find that driving the pins to a uniform depth and then stringing with
the
> instacoiler is accurate and fast.  I can give a step by step description
of
> the insta coiler procedure I use that works good for me.  Ask me, I'm
tired
> right now. Good night.

Good night. Hey, when you wake up please share your procedure. I must say
that I seem to like putting the coils on my pins first, but I would be very
interested to know exactly how someone else does it differently. Thanks.

> Carl Meyer  cmpiano@home.com
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2001 5:49 PM
> Subject: Re: Air Hammer
>
> > Hey Tom! Glad your project met with success! You had me worried that I
> > swrewed up my piano but just could not see it! I'm curious what air
> > pressure(s) you were using. I found that you need 70 or 75 lbs. just to
> make
> > the thing work all the time. If you set it lower it would poop out under
> > hard/fast driving. 75 lbs. seemed to me to be ideal. Enough to drive a
pin
> > in fast, and low enough that when you wanted just one or two slow pops
> from
> > the nailer, you had enough control to do just that. What did you find
> worked
> > well?
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Tom Servinsky" <tompiano@gate.net>
> > To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> > Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2001 6:30 PM
> > Subject: Re: Air Hammer
> >
> >
> > > Jeannie,
> > > Hold on while me wipe the egg of my face...there!
> > > I must have sounded like Chicken Little..."the sky is falling" with
> > regards
> > > to the stock tip that comes with the Palm Nailer.  I should have never
> > > commented on the tip until I had a chance to use it.  I was simply
> passing
> > > on what I thought was useful information from the manufacturer.
> > >
> > > It does work great right out of the box.
> > > I personally can't find anything wrong with this tip.
> > > I strung a Mason & Hamlin A today and what a pleasure!!!!
> > >   In the meantime I will be calling the tech from Danair and tell him
to
> > > stop telling piano rebuilders the stock tip is not suitable.
> > > Very Humbly Yours,
> > >
> > > Tom Servinsky,RPT
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > In the meantime sorry
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
> > > To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> > > Sent: Monday, May 14, 2001 8:07 AM
> > > Subject: Re: Air Hammer
> > >
> > >
> > > > Hello guys!
> > > >
> > > >  "you didn't say what was wrong with the original tips and why they
> > can't
> > > be
> > > > used as-is." The tip that comes with the nailer appears to me to be
> > > perfect.
> > > > I used it just as-is and it worked perfect.
> > > >
> > > > ">I'm so glad you explained about the difference between installing
> > > > > with the coil on the pin or not.  I put the pins in first without
> > coils,
> > > > as
> > > > > I think Terry mentioned he does it, so I wouldn't run into a
problem
> > > until
> > > > > later when I wished to even out the height with the coils now on
the
> > > > pins."
> > > >
> > > > Like I said in a previous post: I put the coils on the pins before
> > > driving.
> > > > No problem with as-is tip. Obviously then, there will be no problem
if
> > you
> > > > drive the pins first and then put coils on and then wish to even up
> coil
> > > > heights.
> > > >
> > > > Can anyone tell me why they think the tip that comes with the Daniar
> > > Nailer
> > > > does not work just fine out of the box?
> > > >
> > > > Hey, I just ran out to my shop to see exactly how the nailer tip
sits
> > atop
> > > a
> > > > tuning pin. I put it on a coiled pin and pressed down, but of course
> > > because
> > > > the air pressure was not on, the tip compresses and kinda thuds to a
> > > > collapsed state - quite unlike when hooked up to an air supply.
> Anyway,
> > in
> > > > this condition, the collar does go down to the coil and actually
rests
> > > upon
> > > > the coil. I guess I have to say that I don't know exactly how it
rides
> > the
> > > > pin top during use. But I can say that I pounded a couple hundred
pins
> > > with
> > > > string coils into a pin block with complete success using the tip as
> it
> > > came
> > > > with the Nailer as-is.
> > > >
> >
>