Surfdog... I appreciate your concern for historical preservation of the magnificent Elisabeth (Betsy) Ross (née Lester) instruments. I made the Hajj to the location of their birth over Thanksgiving weekend as part of a family and high school class reunion trip. A number of my classmates' parents worked at that factory but, unfortunately, none of those folks were at the reunion. (The factory closed while I was in high school.) With the preservation of authentic original parts, as with real estate, one must remember: - location...location...location. The elbows which are directly over the factory-installed uncontrolled heater bar are the most likely to be ossified and can easily be shattered and removed simply by applying a good hard tuning blow. The plastic parts worthy of preservation, either in an argon filled display case or bronzed for mantle display, will be found at the ends, past the end of the bar. Most of my classmates also had most of their original parts and, like the instruments of this discussion, were in varying states of preservation. None were passed out at the end of the bar... ;-} Conrad Hoffsommer From: surfdog at metrocast.net To: pianotech at ptg.org Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 05:58:26 -0500 Subject: Re: [pianotech] Replacing plastic elbows Gee Wim, you have neglected one very important thing in your recommendation of wooden elbows – the preservation of the heirloom value of the great Lester spinet, a paradigm shifting instrument when it came to quality in spinets. For myself, I search out only those very rare early plastic elbows to replace the broken ones. I go so far as to have chemical testing done to assure that these rare replacement elbows have that just right plastic elasticity - you know, the kind that will shatter with a sideways glance. That way I can tell my customer with a straight face that someday they will be able to donate their Lester Betsy Ross spinet to a museum because it it’s elbow blood lines can be traced back to the beginning. I realize that this attention to detail places me in a small and very elite cadre of Lester spinet restoration specialists that leaves the rest of you mere mortals in the dust, but so be it. Wilberforce From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of wimblees at aol.com Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 4:22 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Replacing plastic elbows Greg You're probably not going to like what I'm about to suggest, because it's a little more work, and goes everything else you've read. Vagias snap on elbows are good for replacing a couple of elbows in the piano. But if you're going to do a whole set, and you've got the action out of the piano anyway, why not replace them with wood elbows. My arguments is, plastic was used once, so why replace it with plastic. (I know, the new plastic won't disintegrate like the new Vagias ones. But that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.) Lay the action on the bench, dampers down, and remove the center pins from the wippens. It's not that difficult to do, once you get the hang of it. The old elbows, or what's left of them, will fall right off. Before putting on the new elbows, tighten all the screws, shape the hammers and blow out the dust and dirt. An easy way to put the new elbows on the sticker is to chuck the sticker into a variable speed drill at the regulating button end. (Sometimes you've got to screw down the regulating button a little to get enough into the chuck). Put the elbow in a vice, and drill the sticker onto the new elbow. Try to get the sticker about the same distance into each sticker, but don't try to figure out which sticker goes to which wippen, because you're going to have to regulate all of them anyway. Putting the stickers and new elbows on the wippens is also a little tricky, but again, once you've done a couple and get the hang of it, it's actually very easy. If you're careful, and don't break any wippens, it only takes about 2 hours to do the whole job. Before replacing the action, you probably had to take the keys out. So vacuum under the keys, and down in the bottom of the piano, to get rid of all the plastic remnants of the elbows I haven't done a set for at least 10 years, but over the years, I've made a lot of money from Betsy and her cousins. The total job, including replacing the elbow, vacuuming, regulating, tightening the screws, etc. is worth at least $500, plus tuning. As much as some people seem to belittle Betsy and her cousins, some of those pianos weren't all that bad. If the case is still in good shape, it would be well worth the money to spend on replacing the elbows, as opposed to buying a new piano, or a decent used one. Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT Piano Tuner/Technician 94-505 Kealakaa Str. Mililani, Oahu, HI 96789 808-349-2943 www.Bleespiano.com Author of: The Business of Piano Tuning available from Potter Press www.pianotuning.com -----Original Message----- From: Greg Livingston <pianotuner440 at hotmail.com> To: Pianotech list <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Mon, Dec 7, 2009 4:53 pm Subject: [pianotech] Replacing plastic elbows Dear Friends, I have a Lester spinet action belonging to a long-time customer on my bench (that is, my dining room table) that needs new elbows. I thought replacing the original plastic elbows would be easy, but only the broken ones are brittle; the unbroken ones are hard as concrete. How do you replace these? Unpin them to put the new ones on? I don't want to risk breaking the wippen by trying to bend the old plastic ones. I'd be grateful for your advice, and my wife will be thrilled to get the dining room table back. Thanks, Greg Livingston PS- I have not figured out how to search the archives, though I've tried; I need help in that area, too. ___________________________________________________ Gregory P. Livingston, Piano Tuning and Service 781-237-9178 Piano Technicians Guild, associate member (Boston chapter) * * * Always remember September 11, 2001 * * * Chat with Messenger straight from your Hotmail inbox. Check it out = -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20091208/9ce5be38/attachment.htm>
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