Steve,
I have a 1913 Ivers & Pond upright in my living room that was my first
project and I love it! I refinished, restrung, and give it new hammers
along with other things. If the trapwork is like mine, I know why you like
it. It's built heavy, easily adjustable, and doesn't fall anywhere when you
remove the action.
To try to answer your question about testing the friction on the hammer
flanges, I just removed the hammer/shank/ butt with the center pin intact.
Then I just held the pin with a needle nose pliers in a manner that would
allow you to do a swing test. If there are too many swings, you can repin
and test again before clipping the pin and replacing the hammer. I think it
is unlikely that you would find too many with too much friction. Usually
the worn flanges would make their presence known by the vibrating sound they
make when returning to the hammer rest rail.
My brass rail was in good condition also, but I tried annealing it (a
process I think I discovered reading this list years ago) by heating it and
letting it cool. I did it in the hopes of avoiding future breakage. I
don't know if it helped, but none have broken yet. You do need to remove
the butt plates and screws as the screws will melt before the brass turns
red. DAMHIK.
My board has no real crown and little if any down bearing but sustain and
volume are fine. It has agraffes in the treble only, but they are not used
for string termination. They provide string spacing and also are for the
tuned duplex.
I also ended up replacing the sticker felt. I kept getting squeaks even
after I polished the capstans. Good luck with the project.
John Voigt
Avon, SD
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Blasyak [mailto:atuneforyou at gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, April 05, 2010 12:00 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] Ivers & Pond Upright #24422
Hey Now to all on the list.
I've been behind on my list reading most of the year and this weekend I
finally got caught up!!
I've tried to post a few pictures of a project I've been working on while
the rain drops keep falling on my head. They say it never rains in
California, well this winter we've been getting quite a bit. Consequently
I've not been golfing and surfing as much as I'd like to. This led me to
starting a project I've been procrastinating on for several years. I know
one will ever mistake me for Chuck Behm but you gotta start some place
right?
I bought this Ivers & Pond made in 1900 at an auction several years ago.
It has sat in my garage with a moving quilt over it every since. This may
start more than one thread so I will categorize my questions.
Keys,
Perhaps Mike Morvan or someone with knowledge of how keys are made can
answer this. If you will notice there is an inlay or insert over the key
mortise. What is the purpose of this? I have not routed that many sets of
key tops, so I was just curious as to why the keys were made this way.
Several of these shims or inlays disintegrated while removing the old key
tops. I thought I had taken a photo of my repair but I could not find it.
Key tops are already on, so too late now. I found some thin bass wood at a
hobby store that fit almost perfect. Just a little sanding and I was good to
go.
I have a really good key guy in Huntington Beach that normally send key
sets too. I just wanted to try this one myself for the learning experience.
It just so happened at the same time I was doing this two threads on the
list were blending into to my project. One was key top gluing. (I used Ron
Nosman's ruber band/tape method with PVC E) turned out great!!. The other
was the routing jigs a couple of month's back. My home made routing jig is
very primitive compared to the many photo's I saw posted. By some miracle it
worked good for the most part.
Brass Hammer Rail
Reading my second edition Reblitz page 42-43 it describes and illustrates
the brass hammer rail that I have. However Reblitz makes no mention of how
you do two things. First, how do you test the resistance or friction on this
flange? If it can be done, how do you re-pin to the correct friction? Is it
possible? A far as I know there is no apparent friction problem. All the
hammers seem to return to the rest rail when I depress the soft pedal. The
down weight does not seem to be that bad, right around 50 grams. The brass
rail itself seems to be in really good shape. I've replaced a few butt
plates that were stripped or cracked but that's it. The hammer flange itself
almost looks like there is no bushing cloth around the pin. Is that
possible? Perhaps it is just so old and weathered the bushing cloth looks
like wood. One point of interest, if you look at the wood the brass rail is
attached to you will see upside down 8/20/1900 in pencil. There is a name
not far from that date on the treble side but I could not get a good photo
of it. Perhaps this is not the day my piano was born, but I think the action
may have been completed on this day (or amybe just the hammer rail?). I
thought this was really cool.
The Good the Bad??
This piano sounds really good to me. I have no idea as to how and why. But
hey I play a 43" Kimble Console, so anything would sound better than that
right? Well almost anything (sorry Wurlitzer, Whittney, Everrett). When I
first pithch raised it the pins were not extreamly loose and it seems to
hold it tune really well so far. It's sitting out in the gargage and has not
drifted much at all in the last couple of mounths. I have no idea if it has
ever been re-strung but the bass still has tone almost all the way down. It
does get a little tubby on the mono cords. As far as I can tell there is
little or no crown in the board yet it still has sustain??? The trap work on
this thing is incredble. One hundred and ten years old, no noise....quiet as
can be. I'll try to post some photos later.
I've done the key tops and bushings, some key button repairs. My next
project is to replace the sticker felt before I really try to regulate it.
Then I'm going to tackle the damper felt :-)
Steve Blasyak
Orange County Chapter
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