[pianotech] moving the wippen heal

[johnparham at piano88.com]

David,

Great set of pictures and great description. Thanks for posting.

-John Parham


> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [pianotech] moving the wippen heal
> From: "David Love" <davidlovepianos at comcast.net>
> Date: Wed, July 20, 2011 6:02 pm
> To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
> 
> 
> Caution, this has to do with pianos.  
> 
> Had to relocate a set of wippen heals after moving the capstan.  Often I
> just cover the entire heal with felt if there's a problem with the new
> capstan position contacting the wooden edges of the heal.  In this case I
> didn't want to do that so I wanted to figure out a way to remove the heal
> and relocate it.  I could have just trimmed the entire heel off with a
> bandsaw and then bought a new set of heals but preferred to try and salvage
> what was there.  In this case I needed a 4 mm move.  I marked and drew a
> line that distance from the original heals first for indexing the gluing of
> relocated heal, you can see that a bit in the first photo.  Then to remove
> the heal you first have to clamp the wippen in a vice.  I used some two
> sided tape to attach these wooden strips so I could clamp that lower part of
> the wippen without interference from the wider flanges and posts (second
> photo).  To remove them I took a sharp chisel and ran it under the thin glue
> bead at the edges--kind of rubbery stuff (third photo).  Then with a very
> light tap on both sides the heal it comes right off.  Safest to tap very
> lightly just until you hear the joint break on one side and then switch to
> the other side.  Didn't have any tear out on any of the removals as these
> are mostly glued at the edges.  After the heal is removed I cut off the
> nipple with a band saw--make sure you don't leave a high spot there, a bit
> low is ok since the heal will be held in place by the outer portion.  A few
> swipes over a sheet of sandpaper to clean it up and then glued it back in
> place as pictured in the first photo.  I found the easiest way to work was
> to flip the stack upside down and rotate it to a 45 degree angle (first
> picture kind of gives you an idea) with the flange screws up so you could
> just work across one at a time.  Use a short block on the end of the stack
> to keep it in place.  Takes a couple of hours.  
> 
> BTW this was a early accelerated action Steinway (as you can tell probably).
> A move to a 17 mm knuckle still left the ratio at about 6.1.  I wanted
> something around 5.5
> 
> David Love
> www.davidlovepianos.com
> 
> Just an aside--I'd love to see the ability to post this way to the new list
> put in place somehow--if possible.  This was fairly painless and easy.  But
> a discussion isn't really needed.