class rebuild work

[John Ross]

Speaking of Chickering.
Today I went to a 1/4 Grand, and the hammer blow measurement seemed too 
much.
I got the brass gauge I had, 1 3/4" and raised a sample hammer. It had 
to be raised looked like 1/2".
I figured that was too much of a change.
What should the hammer blow measurement be.
It is about a 1924 vintage.

I really like the, what looks like popsicle stick repair, on yours Ron.
John M. Ross
Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada.
jrpiano at win.eastlink.ca
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Nossaman" <rnossaman at cox.net>
To: "Pianotech" <Pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 5:30 PM
Subject: class rebuild work


>
> I tuned a 6 1/2' Chickering today. It had been patched up at
> some time in the distant past, with new strings, pinblock, and
> hammers. Original dampers, and otherwise original action. A
> total basket case now, board shot and action worn clear out. I
> pulled the action at one point to clear rubbing adjacent
> hammers and found what's almost shown in the alleged photo.
> Sorry, my phone camera isn't exactly state of the art, nor is
> the operator. The finest set of resonating shank patches I've
> ever seen, with a hammer hanging job to match. The brass
> sleeved shank was the one that was the problem. The shank
> pieces were square cut and butted together inside the brass
> sleeve without benefit of glue to keep the hammer pointing in
> the right direction. The keys were numbered from 1 at C-8, to
> 88 at A-0, which I thought was fun. She said they got the
> piano so she and the kids could learn to play on it. I told
> her to be ready, because the piano is DOA, and the kids will
> start pointing that out far sooner than she would like. So
> start getting used to the idea of either rebuilding this one,
> which could make a terrific piano, or replacing it with
> something newer. I suppose we'll see.
>
> My last one was a Baldwin the movers had dropped off the ramp
> (she watched it happen), and broke off both front legs. "We'll
> fix it", they said, and spirited it away to the elves workshop
> where they applied some unidentified glue, and stuck the
> broken ends back together. There - fixed! The two broken legs
> I looked at indicated that they weren't, in fact, all that
> fixed, so I made her an estimate to submit to the moving
> company for somewhat more extensive repairs. They had moved
> with this company twice before with no problems at all, so she
> was pretty sure they would be cooperative in getting this over
> with. So again, I suppose we'll see. Sorry, no poor quality
> pictures of that one.
>
> Tomorrow, I go look at a Story & Clark grand in an estate sale
> for someone before I get to go out in the shop and start
> priming a plate. Man, the fun just never ends! Makes me wonder
> what all those poor souls out there with "real" jobs do for
> entertainment.  <G>
>
> Ron N
>