Hi Will,<div> </div><div>One issue I have with the Crownulator is that boards do not necessarily (necessarily don't?) crown in a nice even radius. Rather, they tend to be variably crowned. I doubt that's news to you, so I'm posing this more as a question of whether or not you are comfortable with that limitation, and with working around it using Jude's gauge. I'm sure you've probably taken readings at various placements along a particular rib - what does that tell you?</div> <div> </div><div>Thanks for the insight.</div><div> </div><div>William R. Monroe</div><div> </div><div> <div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 7:17 PM, Encore Pianos <<a href="mailto:encorepianos@metrocast.net">encorepianos@metrocast.net</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div>Hi David: I’m going to throw in my 1 ½ cents here for what it’s worth to you and others. I do some things a little different than you do. Let me start by saying that I think there are better ways to measure crown than the method you describe. I used to measure by way of the string method more or less as you do. It’s slow, awkward, and probably not terribly precise. About a year ago, I bought a Crownulator from Jude Reveley. It is made up of a 1 ‘ long steel bar accurately flattened on one side. In its center is a hole through which passes the moveable foot of a dial gauge. You lay the bar square on the panel next to the rib. As long as there is positive bearing, the dial gauge foot will move a distance that will be measured on the dial. It’s a mirror image reading, so if the gauge is reading .080 (of a full circle of .100), this means that you have .020 of crown over that 1’ span. There is a formula by which you can drop the numbers in and calculate the crown for the rib. I use it when putting in new boards too. After the board is glued in and otherwise ready to go for stringing, I take a crown reading on as many ribs as I can get at and record those measurements. When setting bearing, drive the board down and take crown readings til I get my target of 50% deflection. Record those measures. Then string and tune the piano, measure crown again and see how well I guessed in the process I think you would find the Crownulator significantly more accurate, quicker, and far easier to use. SNIPWill Truitt </div></div> </blockquote></div> </div>