Dremmels on hammers was RE: mini belt sander for filing hammers

[David Nereson]

pianolover 88 wrote:

> <<Oh I know, if they're this bad, they should get new hammers, but 
> most people don't want to spend $500 or even $250 on their old 
> upright, Hamilton studio, or Wurlitzer console. >>
>
> You only charge the above rates for hanging NEW hammers???? I get $275 
> for filing & reshaping alone! OF course that includes re-aligning 
> hammers to strings and resetting blow & letoff, and an interior 
> cleaning as well.
>
> Terry Peterson
>
>
>
>
    So that's not just filing & reshaping ALONE.  No, the filing & 
reshaping only takes an hour and a half, usually.  Which should come out 
to about $75 at $50 an hour, or $90 at $60/hr.  Owners of fine grands 
and pro's and semi-pro's might pay higher labor rates, but not the 
soccer moms and middle-income people for whom piano lessons and piano 
ownership are the first things to go when budgets get tight.  But I 
digressed.  Sometimes the hammers need filing either 'cause they're 
badly worn or because it would improve the tone, but the rest of the 
regulation is still quite good.  But you file, and now the blow distance 
and let-off are too wide, so you have to do a partial regulation as 
well.  Or a complete regulation.  Or the piano's dirty and needs 
cleaning.  That's what brings it up to $250 or $500.  That would be more 
like the filing & reshaping plus 2,3,4 hours of regulating.  And to 
remove the action & keys and do a good vacuuming (might as well tighten 
plate screws, hardware, trapwork while you've got things apart) would 
add another hour or so. 
    No, new hammers should theoretically cost more like $1000 ($200 for 
the hammers plus $200 for a 100% mark up --some call it a 50% mark-up; 4 
to 6 hours' labor to install, depending on if you buy pre-bored, and 
whether you replace shanks or not -- I'm talking verticals, mostly -- 
and whether you just "throw on a cheap set 'cause it's a cheap little 
console" or if you're doing a top-level job on a high-quality piano -- 
could end up being 8 hours' labor just to install, action not even back 
in the piano yet; and after pre-filing, aligning to strings, mating to 
strings, and regulating and voicing, well, maybe we're approaching $1500 
now).  People start asking if they could just buy a better used piano 
for that price.  And sometimes (rarely) they could.
    I find that the middle-income piano owners who would pay $275 for 
just filing and a little regulating are few and far between.  They think 
that should pay for a complete reconditioning.  When I say, "No, a 
complete reconditioning would be more like $500, or $1000 on a very old 
piano...," that's when I get the "Oh, we're not concert artists.  We 
just want it to work ... besides, Katie's just beginning, anyhow." 
    --David Nereson, RPT