hammer travel

[Marcel Carey]

In the Rappaport's hammer hanging class that I took quite a few years
ago, I clearly remember that when gluing the hammers, we were NOT
looking for them to be straight (perpendicular to the hammer line). Pris
was telling us to hang them so they would travel straight. So, at rest,
they would look funny, but, the traveling part was real easy. We just
had to look at the crooked ones and then shim the flange to put them
straight and VOILA. She said this is the way it was done in Europe in
different shops. 
 
Marcel Carey, RPT
Sherbrooke, QC

-----Message d'origine-----
De : pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] De la
part de David Ilvedson
Envoyé : 19 septembre 2006 15:07
À : ed440 at mindspring.com; pianotech at ptg.org
Objet : Re: hammer travel


The important thing is the spacing on either side of the hammer.   If
one side is getting squished or compressed the hammers is traveling in
that direction and needs traveling.   I remember a hammer hanging class
by Pris Rappaport years ago where she purposely put traveling paper
under one flange on each hanging jig.  Once hammers were hung, we
removed the traveling paper and she showed us the burning in technique.
She demonstrated the same thing in LA last year or so.  Specifically
mentioning the squeezing of space on one side of the hammer.   She does
not travel the shanks except for some really out there ones.   I,
personally, think traveling the shanks makes sense before hanging the
hammers.   The angled hammers hung at strike point, perfectly at 90
degrees will naturally take on a cant when at rest.  

David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA 94044



  _____  

Original message
From: ed440 at mindspring.com
To: "Pianotech List" 
Received: 9/19/2006 6:05:58 AM
Subject: Re: hammer travel


Tapered hammers can give the illusion of traveling horizontally when you
play them one at a time.  Change the rake and you change the illusion.
Get the hammer straight up, and you stop the "travel" and maybe get a
better hammer/string allignment.
Ed S.




-----Original Message----- 
From: Farrell 
Sent: Sep 19, 2006 8:28 AM 
To: Pianotech List 
Subject: Re: hammer travel 


Maybe I'm missing something here - and maybe I'm just going to show off
some of my ignorance - hanging hammers is not my expertise - but how
will bending the shank affect hammer travel? Seems to me if a hammer
travel has a horizontal component (you don't want any - all movement
should be vertical) during its travel through its arc, the solution is
to travel the hammer/shank/flange by inserting the appropriate thickness
of traveling paper under the flange (in this case on the bass side of
the flange screw). If you bend the shank, yes you can move the hammer
over one way or another, but it will still have a horizontal travel
component.
 
Yes?
 
Terry Farrell

----- Original Message ----- 
 

A few days ago I had an interesting experience with a Baldwin D Concert
Grand.   New Ronsen Wurzens and shanks/flanges(not sure what the brand
was).  I had noticed lately that the hammers were traveling towards the
bass, i.e. depress the key and the space on the bass side of the moving
hammer and its neighbor was compressing.   I went through and started at
the first tenor burning it in.  That is heating the shank with an Ungar
heat gun and twisting the hammer towards the direction of compression or
in the instance the bass.   I then spaced the hammer back between its
neighbors and check it again.   When it was right, I immediately noticed
the tone of the hammer was blooming...opening up...I did have to fit the
hammer to the string which fixed some buzzing sounds.   I was really
able to hear this difference because I still had an original hammer one
note up.  ! ; 

 

This is a really important part of hanging hammers.   Travel the shanks
first, hang the hammers, then travel the hammers with a heat gun.
Yamaha Concert Services said the same thing...big part of voicing the
hammers...

 

There are a number of hammer hanging articles PTG sells in a
combilation, for instance Cliff Gears and Steve Brady which expond on
this...


David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA 94044



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