Terry wrote....... >I have several questions regarding rebuilding upright damper levers. I need >to replace all damper lever springs and felt. Anyone willing to help? Yes.... I'll have a go. >1) Damper spring flange cord. What is the best way to remove it? I tried >pushing it through - just jammed up in the spring area and......(flange is >now in vice with tite-bond). Is there a handy way to pull it through? Or >should it be cut with a razor at the spring and then pushed? I did take the >steel center pin out first (I assume that is the way to start at least). Terry, sometimes centrepin extractor works, some cord just pushes out cleanly, but othertimes it just bunches up. In this case I simply cut through the cord (pin removed first for obvious reasons) beside the spring coil, then pull spring free and push cord remnants out of flange. It is a very simple procedure and quite fast once a routine is established. Flanges must be off levers to do this though. >2) The cord in the one flange I have removed appears to not have been glued >in place - is this OK to reproduce when installing the new cord? Definitely no glue. It isn't necessary if the correct thickness of cord is used. >3) Should the new cord simply be pulled through and cut to length? If it is >not glued in, is it not going to crunch up inside when I try to install >center pin? Is there some procedural trick to getting new cord and pin in? >Or should I glue it in regardless of whether it was originally glued in or >not? Yes.... pull though and trim. I don't use centre pins if the cord is a firm fit. Otherwise I pull cord through leaving a couple of mm exposed then insert c/pin into core of cord and trim the whole lot at once. Again... NO GLUE REQUIRED. >4) There is a creased little round piece of felt/cloth at the lever top >where the top of the spring rubs against the lever. Some levers do not have >cloth, instead they have a direct wire-to-graphited wood contact. Do I need >the felt/cloth? Can I just remove it and put some dag on the groove in >lever? If it is best to replace felt/cloth, what should it be replaced with? >I do not find any such identified thing in the catalogs. Bushing cloth punchings I find best. I cut my own with about 8mm punch. Takes all of about 3 minutes to produce the 65 to 70 required. You'd have them done before finding them in a catalogue. Some makers have coated wood contact. I'm not sure what the green coating is on many newer pianos but it gets worn which increases friction. Either way some dry lude is recommended. I run a soft lead pencil on the cloth punching a few times once it's in place. >5) What kind of felt/cloth is used at the bottom of the lever where the >damper lift rod and damper spoons push against the damper lever? Boxcloth,(English term) heavy woven cloth similar to bushing cloth. I sourced some from Japan some years ago and they called it damper lever cloth. Not sure what you guys call it though. >6) What kind of bushing felt/cloth should be used in the damper lift rod >bushing holder thingees? Is there any source for older style bushing holder >thingees? I know they have the newer ones in the catalogs, but I will have >to chisel/rout a new spot for these if I need to convert. My original ones >have a round base and appear to be made of copper or brass. In many cases I repair the brass ones originally used. Drill out the old bushing cloth, clean-up the brass "thingees", rebush with usual bushing cloth as you would with flanges. Make sure you clean-up the angled pins that go into them. Size of cloth depends on dimensions of hole etc. >I know cloth is woven. How does felt differ? How to tell the difference when >examining old cloth/felt? Cloth is woven and can be torn to follow a weave, felt has no weave but I'm not sure how it is produced. >An aside - but related topic: >I am engaged in doing a partial rebuild of an upright action. The lady is >pretty sure that she will go ahead with rebuilding the entire piano in the >next few years - but not now (turn-of-century Fisher upright - her >grandmother's piano - and she learned to play on it). The action was too bad >to play, so I told her we could start with the action. Planned on replacing >hammers, shanks, butts, and damper felt. I guessed good and have found the >wippens to be in amazingly good shape - if we want to replace them later, we >can - but they will function well for now. The dampers however has a few >broken springs, moth-eaten felt, little round felt detaching, etc. I will >rebuild these things and not charge her, because I should have been able to >identify the troubles and include the damper rebuilding as work required. I >suppose I could just put the other parts on and not rebuild the dampers - >but then, well, you know how much luck I will have when I try to regulate >the whole shebang and how it will work (or not). I guess what I am getting >at is that is never ceases to amaze me how interrelated piano parts are. It >is extremely difficult to take an old action and make it work right without >replacing most all parts. You certainly cannot expect to ignore one whole >system just to save money. This is what I did in this case - ignored the >damper levers. When I actually got all the old butts & wippens off and only >the dampers remained, I started looking at them and wondering why several >seemed weaker than the others - broken springs. Then I noticed the little >groove felts that were loose. I took a few off and realized the lift felt >was bug/moth eaten. I have no idea how so many of these "tooner-techs" can >put cheap new hammers, bass strings, and damper felts on an old worn-out >piano and call it "rebuilt" - and sleep at night. Re-building / repairing upright damper system is pretty basic and not particularly time consuming unless things are being re-designed for new heads. Replacing springs, repinning flanges, replacing tail/lever cloth, then either replacing damper felt or fitting new heads can easily be done in less than a day. To replace the parts with new, though ideal, isn't always necessary. New parts can take time to setup too, adjust travel (often quite a bit) bend wires etc and regulate to fit new heads. Regarding your comment on finding more work to do as you get into a job, I consider these jobs as either all or nothing as, if a partial job is attempted we continue to shift the weakest link to another part of the action system. I've been there and done that.... chased my tail on too many jobs now to know better. Regards, Graeme Harvey New Plymouth New Zealand
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