[pianotech] WNG jack don't come back no more, no more, no more.....

[Nicholas Gravagne]

On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 8:44 AM, Encore Pianos
<encorepianos at metrocast.net>wrote:

Will writes:

Combine the too heavy gauge of wire for the hammers with rep springs where
> the coil flops around on a too small barrel (.050 difference) along with a
> jack top that is visibly smaller in width and length than other comparable
> grand jacks (the WNG jack is, and that means that the top of the jack is
> carrying a much higher load than a comparable jack,
>

Will -- a bit of nitpicking here, but the load has not changed; what has
changed is the intensity of the force (higher) and friction owing to the
smaller carrying surface area of the jack top. Your argument still
theoretically holds, however.

...

> My solution to these too heavy guage rep springs was to repin the rep
> lever posts at about 10 grams to slow the karate chop kicks of the hammer
> from the springs so that you would get a much slower and controlled rise.
> The too heavy springs make the adjustments hypersensitive and a giant pain
> in the ass to regulate.
>

Whether the rep spring wire gage is heavy or lighter, the same force from
either will be required to raise the hammer in the manner that most of us
agree on and with a concomitant and beneficial effect to the jack behavior
as well. "Too heavy" a gage, as I recall with my set, behaves exactly as
you say, making the "adjustments hypersensitive...". I recall that the zone
of adjustment acceptability was much narrower than we are used to with
traditional wood parts.

> ** **
>
> By the way, all this was on an early set of cloth bushed WNG parts made 2
> years or more ago.  I suspect that in Ed Foote's case, some of these issues
> may remain while others may have been addressed, as I had long
> conversations with Bruce Clark about these issues some time ago.
>
Likewise. It was my understanding that a lighter gage wire was being
considered. In my experiments with the rep lever half of the spring ----- I
shortened this segment and re-curled the top with rounding pliers keeping
the curl well within the rep slot. This shortened segment had to now work
harder to lift the hammer yet left a reasonable amount of tension in the
jack segment. BTW, my parts were all hard bushed.

NG


> ****
>
>
>
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