[pianotech] Plastic Damper flanges

[Joe Goss]

Hi,
Another thing you might need to consider is the thickness of the spoon felt. If you end up having to use a flange that is longer than the original, thicker felt can take up the void and lessen the need to move the spoon to a undesirable point.
Joe Goss BSMusEd MMusEd RPT
imatunr at srvinet.com
www.mothergoosetools.com
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Rob McCall 
  To: pianotech at ptg.org 
  Sent: Monday, January 02, 2012 11:21 AM
  Subject: Re: [pianotech] Plastic Damper flanges


  Thanks Del,


  That's very helpful!


  By the way, here's a photo of one of the bass dampers.  In fact, this is the only one I could find that even had a slight remnant of the screw hole from which to measure.


  The felt seems to be okay on all the dampers. I don't think this piano was used very much...


  Regards,


  Rob McCall


  McCall Piano Service, LLC
  www.mccallpiano.com
  Murrieta, CA
  951-698-1875






  On Jan 02, 2012, at 08:19 , Delwin D Fandrich wrote:


    You’ll not find any specifications for this kind of work. You do what you can with what you can find. And you’ll have a talk with your client about the economic feasibility of going ahead with the repair. The piano may not be worth the effort.

    Having said that—and assuming the client wants to spend the money—the repair procedure is fairly straight forward.
    n  If you’re lucky you might find two pieces of the same flange to measure but why bother? Your choices for replacement flanges are rather limited; buy the one with the spring length that best fits.
    n  Remove the rest of the flanges from the damper levers. Do not install the new flanges yet.
    n  Sort the levers into piles by damper type; mono-chords to the left, bi-chords next, then tri-chords (if there are any) and, finally the pads.
    n  Now start putting them in order using the damper type as an initial guide. Lay them out side-by-side with a board under the wood levers (so they will lie as flat as you can get them) and sort by the amount of bend in the damper wires.
    n  The bends will be fairly progressive and obvious to the discerning eye. You probably won’t get them perfect but you should be able to get them fairly close to the right order just by looking. You want the bends to look progressive.
    n  Once they are sorted you can install the new flanges and screw them to the rail. Before installing the action stand back and take a last look at the back of the action; you may want to swap around a few for a better side-to-side fit.

    Thinking about this job is more intimidating than actually doing it. Once the action is in the piano you’ll need to adjust the side-to-side damper spacing and damper lift. This may also not be as bad in the doing as it is in the thinking about. It depends on how close the replacement damper flanges are to the originals.

    I’ve probably forgotten a few details—it’s been close to thirty years since I’ve done one—but once you’re started it should go along fairly smoothly.

    ddf

    Delwin D Fandrich
    Piano Design & Fabrication
    6939 Foothill Court SW, Olympia, Washington 98512 USA
    Phone  360.515.0119 — Cell  360.388.6525
    del at fandrichpiano.com — ddfandrich at gmail.com

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