[pianotech] Guess which pin...

[Tom Driscoll]

Rob,
Many of  he Baldwin acros of the 60's -70's have chronic tight centers . My 
first test is to depress the left pedal , release quickly and watch for slow 
hammer return. Jacks centers can also be tight .I use the age old alc-water 
shrink-sizing method and it seems to  provide a permanent fix. Give it 
overnight and test. Some use a hair dryer to speed things up but I'd rather 
see what the center will do on it's own. I then shoot some protek figuring 
it can't hurt to slick the center up.
 I realize that not every piano will respond  ( I.E. center pin plating 
problem on the Samicks)  but  with this Kimball I would give it a try. It's 
easy ,cheap and will do no harm AND it might solve the problem.
 Just my take,
 Best wishes,
 Tom Driscoll----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rob McCall" <rob at mccallpiano.com>
To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2011 2:28 AM
Subject: [pianotech] Guess which pin...


> Greetings,
>
> I have a 1982 Kimball Console action in my shop. Many of the keys were 
> sticking in the piano.  Looking at it in the piano, the problem didn't 
> appear to be the keys, at all. It was definitely in the action. However, 
> it was difficult to tell which center pin it was. At first it looked like 
> the hammer butt flange pin needed to be re-pinned. So I did that.  It 
> fixed it momentarily.  Then it started to stick again.  Looking at it, it 
> looked like the wippen center pin might be the problem since it wasn't 
> coming all the way back down when the key was released. Although, I wasn't 
> clear if it was because the jack center wasn't resetting all the way, 
> either. As the problems were over the entire upper third of the action to 
> one degree or another, we agreed to have me take the action and work at it 
> on my bench.
>
> As it turns out, about 30 percent of the hammer butt flanges needed 
> re-pinning. Also, about 20 percent of the jack centers had to be 
> re-pinned.  Additionally, almost 50 percent of the wippens needed to be 
> re-pinned. It was hit and miss, with some notes needing all 3 pins 
> changed, others 2 pins, and some only 1 pin, while some remained 
> unchanged. I ended up taking pretty much every hammer and wippen assembly 
> off to evaluate all 3 pins.
>
> It seemed very time-consuming, so my question is this...
>
> What do you look at, or manipulate, to determine which pin is the culprit 
> while the action is still in the piano or on the workbench? How do you 
> test them all to determine the troublemaker without disassembling most of 
> the action?
>
> Obviously, my method works very well, but, as I mentioned, it's very 
> time--consuming. Any thoughts or insight is greatly appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> Rob McCall
>
> McCall Piano Service, LLC
> www.mccallpiano.com
> Murrieta, CA
> 951-698-1875