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<DIV>PianoDisc installation just completed.</DIV>
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<DIV>The damper tray pivots are at each end and the pivot blocks are removable
by taking out one screw. The underlever flanges are mounted on the tray so
that when the tray moves so do all the flanges.</DIV>
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<DIV>Problem ........ damper tray return friction is fairly high
resulting in leaky dampers when the pedal is released gently. I lubed both
pivots and there didn’t seem to be any change. The damper UL flanges are
accessible when the tray is pushed all the way to the keybed so I could lube
them all if I thought that would work. After doing that I create another
problem or two ...... decreased downweight hence the recalibration
of all of the minimum velocities AND the possible return of the problem when the
lube wears off ....... if lubing has any effect in the first
place.</DIV>
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<DIV>The piano is no longer in my shop. It’s on the dealer’s floor about
12 miles from here. It gets delivered in about 5 days. The challenge
as always, is to bring all the materials and tools that you could possibly need
to effect repairs successfully in one trip. Reminds me of plumbing
projects. Another challenge, as always, is to make the repair with the
minimal amount of effort and mechanism modifications.</DIV>
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<DIV>Notes ...... the damper tray is wooden and there isn’t any
return spring as is found in some pianos. The bass dampers were the
leakers but when I adjusted them so they wouldn’t leak anymore, the top twenty
or so now leak. I fear if I fix those, there will be others. Bottom
line is I need the damper tray to fall away from the underlevers if allowed to
do so. I’ve installed a PianoDisc in this piano and the design of the
crossover was within specs putting the pivot at a one to one ratio with the
pitman and the pedal solenoid. This leaves the material from the pitman
forward to assist in it’s return. The heck of it all is that this Baldwin
has the pedal push rods that have no guides and they mate up with bushed holes
in the crossovers/levers. This adds weight to the mechanism which is part
of the source of my problem but the design has already been installed and is
working great except for some leaky dampers.</DIV>
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<DIV>The slightest upward push on the tray creates the problem. (pitman
removed, no additional hardware attached) I’m thinking of making a coiled
spring with tails out of 22 gauge piano wire. The one end gets pushed into
the belly rail and the other turns a 90 degree corner into the damper tray at
the farthest point from the pivot. If it works, I’ll take pix and submit
them. The completed spring would resemble a loop (or two) on a roller
coaster including the approaches.</DIV>
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<DIV>Any of you PianoDisc installers run into this. Sometime in the next
three days I’ll give it a try. </DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>