Silly Question #2 - Reassembly order of Upright action

[Britt West]

Rick,
      Are the butt flanges pinned with long center pins that go though 
all of the butts in a section? I have seen this on old Broadwood 
grands.
    To answer your order question.  I usually install all of the whippen 
assemblies first.  I like to glue on the new parts quickly with them 
all installed instead of handling each piece.   I then glue on action 
(capstan) cloth, butt and catcher leather, butt felt squares on the 
butt and catcher (if they had them), Dag and burnish the jack tops and 
toes, install jack springs then install backcheck felt.  If you haven't 
removed the damper rod and polished and rebushed the flanges do this 
and re-install.  Install butts.  Mostly I see brass rail butt flanges 
that use the brass plates attached with a set screw.  I usually replace 
the plates and redrill the original brass rail tabs to accept the new 
screws (you may need to grind the new screws a little shorter to clear 
the butt mortise).  If you will be installing new hammers I would 
recommend using new butts and shanks.  The poor quality new ones 
available from Pratt Read from the supply houses will probably need to 
be rebushed.  I haven't tried Renner's I understand they have them 
though.  Anyway install the butts, install the newly re-felted and re 
sprung spring rail.  Glue in butt spring punchings if you need them, 
hold them in place with the springs as you go.  Bend any springs that 
twist when installed in the butt spring slots.  Install let off rail 
with new punchings making sure that all screws will turn freely and not 
break off.    Install bridal straps and hook them up at same time.  
Rebush hammer rest rail flanges, Replace hammer rest rail felt.  
Install hammer rest rail.
      If you are using the old butts and shanks I would probably install 
the damper assemblies here.  You will only have your guide hammers and 
the shanks in the way.  First I would clean them and replace the damper 
under lever felt and spring punchings.  If the springs are shot, 
install new flanges with springs or new assemblies.  With the action on 
the cradle look to make sure all spoons are contacting the felt 
correctly and adjust if necessary.  Straighten out any misaligned 
damper heads.  I would put the action in the piano and glue on damper 
felt before hanging hammers.  Bend wires as needed to align heads with 
strings.  Check to make sure you can get lift from the pedal and the 
dampers will seat and rough it in if you want to.  I like to glue in 
the felt in the piano but you could glue the flats on with the action 
in the cradle if you wanted.
    Put a piece of masking tape on the strings in the area of the strike 
point per Bill Spurlocks instructions on his web site.  Adjust the 
bolts (name?) in the keyframe under the action brackets so that the 
action fits in snugly and adjust the strike point if necessary.  
Measure 1/8" down from the center of the V-bar and make a mark on the 
tape at #88.  Draw a line in the middle of your #1 hammer and mark the 
spot where it originally would have contacted the tape.  Using a 
straightedge make a line from #88 to #1 on the tape.  You will use this 
line to align your sample hammers for each section.
      Bore samples taper top octave or so.  Use hammer boring procedure 
or order bored to samples.  Hang hammers checking along the tops for 
alignment using a small straight edge and the tape on the strings.  If 
the low tenor damper felt is short I will usually "sweep up" the last 4 
or 5 hammers to allow for longer damper felt.  This is also covered, I 
think, on Bill Spurlock's web site.
      This is by no means the way I do this every time as there are 
always different things to consider on each action.  This is just a 
suggestion.  I use hot hide glue for all action parts.

I hope this helps,

Britt West