Marshall The but plates on these old pianos are attached to a brass rail. (Sorry I completely forgot about the brass rail action when I responded earlier). What you are feeling at C88 is one of the many screws that hold the brass rail to the action rail. The good news about brass rail actions is that the hammers very rarely wobble from side to side, unless the screw that holds the but plate is loose. You will have to take the action out of the piano to tighten the screws. You asked about the screw driver. I use a small 6" screw driver from Sears. They are long enough to reach inside the action, but short enough to give you good control over it. The bad news about a brass rail actions is that once a tab breaks, unless you have the repair parts, you're out of luck. What will also happen is the little but plate will break in half. They are available from the supply houses, but they are a pain to put in the action. In general, I don't know about other techs, but I discourage people with brass rail pianos from doing any repairs on their piano. The brass rail are very hard to duplicate, and very seldom will the action work properly with a new brass rail. It's just not worth the time and effort to work on them. Fortunately I'm seeing fewer and fewwer of these pianos, at least here in Hawaii. . You asked about "refresher courses". Marshall, that's what the PTG is all about. None of us can possibly remember every little detail of every little repair on every model piano. That's why most of us constantly attend chapter meetings, seminars and conventions. I try to attend as many classes on topics I already know because I am sure I have forgotten something. And attending a refresher course will keep me up to date. As far as supply house part numbers are concerned. I don't know about the others, but I have a photographic memory. Just kidding. Like the others, I keep my catalogues in my desk, so that I can look up a part number, and even the page number, at a moments notice. Wim -----Original Message----- From: Marshall Gisondi <pianotune05 at hotmail.com To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.orb Sent: Fri, Feb 1, 2013 5:10 pm Subject: [pianotech] butt plate screws Hi Dave, Thank you for all of the info. This piano is an old Lester upright, so tall you'd have to work on it standing up. The best way I can describe it is by what I'm feeling. The reason I'm not sure if I access these screws from the back is due to the fact that when I put my finger on the brass rain at c88 where I can wedge my finger in from the side of the action bracket, I feel this screw that feels almost flush with the rail maybe a little recessed. Now on the area where the hammer is not only loose but just literally sitting there non functioning, I feel this little metal thing protruding out almost feels like the threaded end of a screw, but I cannot feel a head on it. This leads me to a couple of questions. How do I know if the plate is missing? I hear and feel the center pin click when I put in place. So does that mean the plate is present? do you remove the action in order to access this or do like some might do and just tilt it outward toward you in order to access the screw. Just in case anyone reading might wonder, I have had some exposure to this at the school. I just have trouble remembering which way the action was facing when we worked on this since it was already out of the piano. I mentinoed this because someone e-mailed Don at the school and asked if I was trained because of some trouble I was having with another repair, but I cannot recall which one it was. While I'm on this topic of remembering tasks, is this normal to neeed a refresher on tasks/repairs once in a whie? I also have the Reblitz book. I'm also curious as to how you guys know the part numbers off the top of you rhead like that amazing. Oh just order screwdriver # .... amazing! You guys are a great help. So to ease any confusion, this is definitly not a flange screw situation. It is a hammer but plate arangement. I've never seen this on an old upright before. We had an old upright at the school with a weird hammer spring rail that used cord loops or some sort of arrangement. I didn t work on this one, but I recall it might have been from an old Bell brand piano. Well thanks everyone!! I sure appreciate you guys Marshall Marshall Gisondi MARSHALL'S PIANO SERVICE 215-510-9400 http://www.phillytuner.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20130201/b6357a83/attachment.htm>
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