[pianotech] lubricating damper springs?

John Formsma formsma at gmail.com
Tue May 12 08:19:19 MDT 2009


Thankfully, there aren't that many places for these type noises to come
from.  You just have to isolate it. I've never seen an Ibach, so don't know
how it's set up.

What sort of noise is it?  Can you isolate it to the damper levers by
pressing on the dampers with your hand (with action removed)?  Is it a light
tick-tick-tick-tick that comes from the springs in the slot?  Or is it more
of a creaking sound from the rod on the damper lever felt?

Does it have a dummy damper? Sometimes all the noise comes from it.

Are the lever felts cupped and need replaced?

It's possible that a hinge(s) is too tight, and might need rebushing.  If
it's too tight, CLP doesn't help.

I'm sure you checked the trapwork to eliminate noise coming from below the
action.

Sometimes the damper rod itself needs to be cleaned and lubricated. I remove
the rod, then use Flitz to clean, and a Teflon grease-type lube (Super Lube)
to lubricate.
Sometimes it is the damper spring slot, or I guess dirty springs could be a
problem, though I haven't seen that yet.   You could re-graphite with a lead
pencil.  But if you've already used fat (not familiar with this procedure),
that will prevent graphite from getting where it needs to be.

Hard to say exactly without being able to probe around in it. :-)  I don't
consider myself to be all that great at diagnosing problems.  But I find
that if I stare at it long enough, and check everything methodically, the
solution eventually appears.  Don't give up!

--
JF

On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 7:49 AM, Gregor _ <karlkaputt at hotmail.com> wrote:

>  List,
>
> I have a problem with annoying sounds when depressing the right pedal of an
> upright very slowly. It turned out that it comes from the dampers or the rod
> that lifts the dampers. Usualy I fix it with lubricating the springs and the
> rod and the hinge-joints of the rod. But in this case it did not help. The
> spings are not embedded in felt or leather but in graphitated wood. I used
> stag fat for the dampers and the rod, which usualy helps allways (for the
> hinge-joints I used Protec CLP). Was that a mistake instead of using graphit
> for the spring embedding? I mean, if new graphit were the only way to solve
> such a problem, then a future application of graphit could be hindered by
> the fat on the springs. But I am not shure about that.
>
> Any ideas about the source of these sounds and the solution of that
> problem? It´s an Ibach C upright from 1986 with a Renner action. It seems
> that the bass dampers are the main culprits.
>
> Gregor
>
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-- 
JF
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