[pianotech] Tuning lever --Shameless self promotion

[Tom Driscoll]

Kurt,
 The carbon fiber tubing is unidirectional  , sanded and it is tapered . The wall thickness is .062"  and the covering is a golf grip and not grip tape.I tried the tape and it wasn't as stable as the glued on grip. You tube taught me how to apply a golf grip on a graphite (CF) shaft and what materials are required.I could go into the club regripping business if the lever doesn't sell !
    The levers are very light and balanced and for me the ball end at this size is very comfortable.The narrow profile provides clearance on all but a few plate struts and if I do touch a plate the rubber is forgiving.
    What I can say is that after 35 years in the trade using the traditional wood handled beasts  that  I now have a better feel with  what's going on with the pin and my hand-wrist doesn't hurt anymore especially after a long day of pitch raising  and tuning.
 How does it compare with Faulk and Fujan for stiffness? Not sure but those diagrams sure look cool on the Fujan web site. I've only tried the Fujan at convention on a few pins and the Faulk I've borrowed and used on a few tunings was the old design and not the CF model.
    This may or may not  become a venture worth pursuing but I've had some fun along the way. I have one bid on the lever now so I'll let the Ebay marketplace dictate fair value on my final version  prototypes and see if I can make a buck.
    Still need a name though .  Driscoll Tun-o-matic ?  Tom's Tune Master?  I'm a bit partial to the " Driscoll Slim Stik " 
Suggestions welcomed. 

Best to all and travel safely to Vegas .
 Tom D.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: kurt baxter 
  To: pianotech at ptg.org 
  Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 11:15 AM
  Subject: Re: [pianotech] Tuning lever --Shameless self promotion


  Interesting.

  Is it available without the grip tape? What sort of carbon fiber material is it made with?

  Do you have any data on stiffness vs traditional levers or other carbon fiber levers?
  Becuase of it's conical shape, I would guess the stiffness will be higher than traditional and Faulk levers, and lower than Fujan, because it has the large tube diameter all the way to the tip.



  -kurt







  On Sun, Jun 20, 2010 at 10:36 PM, Tom Driscoll <tomtuner at verizon.net> wrote:

    List,
      I've settled on a final design for my Carbon fiber tuning levers.  I have one of the last protoptypes  for sale on EBAY and hope to run a journal advertisement once I get stocked up with more carbon tubing.
     Tom Driscoll RPT

        http://cgi.ebay.com/Piano-tuning-lever-Carbon-fiber-/300439401296?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item45f3957350



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100621/bc43e330/attachment.htm>