Steinway hammer alignment

[Newton Hunt]

I am going to overwhelm you with this answer but all the information is
here whether you are doing just a few or an entire action.

Before starting this on an action with new shanks or an action you are
going to regulate the action itself needs to be located left to right in
the piano.

Start by making sure the shanks at the top of the middle section are
perpendicular to the hammer flange rail, that they lie directly over the
wippens and they are parallel with each other and that they are fairly
well traveled.

Check that the majority of the hammers align well with the top half
octave of the middle section unisons.   Agraffes define the string
locations here and the strings are perpendicular to the action front
rail.

Shims can be added or removed from behind the action stop block on the
left inside of the rim.

If this is not done misalignment of hammers, strings, wippens, keys and
damper levers will become a problem.

First do a rough traveling on the bench.

Put a screwdriver blade under several (7 to 8) shanks, lift the blade
and watch the shanks. Those shanks that move left or right relative to
their neighbors need traveling.  Unscrew the flange.  Cut narrow long
strips of "lick & stick" paper tape 0.125" (1/8" or 3mm) wide. Wider is
not good and narrower serves no purpose.   "Peel & stick" glues ooze out
over time and undo your traveling.

Glue a strip on the _underside_ of the flange on the side the shank
moves toward.  The wider the strip, the closer to the flange hole, the
thicker the material and the longer the strip the more it will travel. 
Start with a full length strip and replace the flange on the rail. 
Again check for movement.

Continue this until all the obvious ones are not moving left or right.

The purpose of "burning" shanks is to get the hammer weight directly
over the shank centerline so no energy is wasted by 'twisting' or
torquing the shank during flight.

Observe three hammers and space them so the spaces between them is
even.   Lift the center hammer to the shank is at the level of the
strike point of it's neighbors.   If the shank is NOT centered the shank
will need to be heated (by anything that will not leave a burn or smoke
mark) and the hammer head rotated in the direction of the offset.  Heat,
rotate, hold for a few seconds   If you rotate when the shank is cold it
is possible to damage the pinning so wait for a few seconds for the
shank to heat and soften before rotating.

Respace the center hammer and recheck.

In the lower middle section and in the bass it is more difficult to
determine rotation.   Lifting until the tail end is in the center of the
strike points of the neighbors, the end of the tail should become closer
and closer to the neighbor _opposite_ to the bore angle

Space travel space burn space travel space burn pace ... etc., etc.  
It's like tuning, never done.

When rough in is done put the action in the piano and space the hammers
to the strings so that on most pianos there is an equal amount of
'exposed' hammer on each side of the unison.   On Steinway this is twice
as much on the right as on the left.   Space the middle section first
then duplicate the same space on the left in the treble.

In the bass space the hammers to they are slightly to the left of center
to prevent a hammer striking it's right hand neighbor when the action is
shifted.   Shift amount should be no more than is needed for the left
treble string to be missed by the hammer.

You may wish to check the spacing of the treble strings.   Take your
soundboard steel, or a suitable thin strip of wood, and put a strip of
masking tape on one side.   Put this strip on the action so it does not
stick out beyond the top hammer flange more than 1/2" or less and on the
far side of and against the flange drop screws.   Tape it in place to
prevent movement.   Mark the center of each drop screw from the upper
four or five middle section notes too #88.   Slide this into the piano,
above the strings and under the plate braces, align the marks to their
respective upper middle section strings (they cannot be moved) and check
the alignment of the treble strings.   Space a few, watch damper and
damper guide rail bushings and that the strings move in a straight line
from tuning pin to hitch pin.   A straight line from right side of
tuning pin to appropriate side of the hitch pin is how the drilling
center for the bridge pins is determined.

On most pianos, except Steinway and Yamahas and other pianos that have
similar short flanges, I slip a screwdriver blade between the flanges so
the end of the blade is in line with the flange screws and move the
handle left or right to space a flange.   Practice this with the action
on the bench while traveling and burning shanks.

Space the hammers to the strings and remove the action.   Those hammers
that are visually out of space need to be traveled and recentered.

Put the action back and check the hammer to string spacing and mark the
keys, with a soft chalk, to indicate which way and how much the hammers
that are off will need to be traveled.   Pull the action and travel only
those shanks where chalk marks are on the keys.   I use left and right
pointing arrows and the closer to the key buttons it is indicate how
much more travel paper is needed.

A little paper at the back end of the flange makes a small change.   The
further toward the hammer you move it the more effect it has.   If you
have more than three thickness of paper under a flange look for other 
problems.   Do not put paper under both sides of the flange or it will
not hold it's spacing.

If you get the idea this is a long and tedious job you are right. 
Sometimes it takes me half a day to do this one operation but the payoff
is that everything will align properly and you will not have to repeat
any alignments.

If not done properly all kinds of problems appear and you may have to go
back to the beginning and do it right and all over again.

I hope I did not kill you with traveling.

		Newton