Qwestion about lost motion tests

[KeyKat88 at aol.com]

Greetings,

         There seems to be a gray area about lost motion for me. In an 
upright or console, when all the keys are resting or balanced on their own weight, 
and if I push alittle on the top of the key to test lost motion amount, the 
check and hammer simultaneously move by my doing this. It is indicative of NO 
lost motion. Right?  However, if I grab the key between my fore finger and thumb 
and move the key up and down then I see a sustantial amout (1/32" to 3/64") of 
motion. Then what?

        Which test is the truer test? In school, they taught us to just 
lightly tap on the top of the key and if the check winks slightly without winking 
the hammer then that is the lost motion. However, working with used pianos, I 
have discovered that if I secure the key between my fingers and move it up and 
down this will show me lost motion, even though the 'top of the key tap' test 
shows me there is none. 

     It seems there is a conflict, and geeeesh(!) there can be differences in 
the amout when two (let's say, for the sake of making my point obvious) two 
white keys side by side are set the same for the 'top of the key tap' test and 
when I use the 'up and down' test they can really different amounts from one 
another. What gives?

      
Thanks in advance
Julix Gottshall
Reading, PA 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20060504/dda5cf16/attachment.html