<HTML>In a message dated 11/9/2002 7:47:32 PM Pacific Standard Time, pianobuilders@olynet.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px"> <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">----- Original Message ----- From: <A HREF="mailto:mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com">Farrell</A> To: <A HREF="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech</A> Sent: November 09, 2002 9:49 AM Subject: Re: Chickering 1/4 Grand Action Rebuild . </BLOCKQUOTE>           Del I apreciate the perspective and encouragement you,ve give here to Terry  on the Chickering 1/4 grand and with all due respect to the both the perspective & encouragement factor you've given I must admit that I find few people who are willing to spend the kind of real money to satisfactorily repair  Sooo many problematic functions on one very small piano. So the decision for me got to be how much money do I want to donate to fixing someone elses beloved piano. Unfornutately this always the other side of this coin. Yes many sound quite good. </BLOCKQUOTE>          The later larger 1920's Chickering the 5ft. 7" have some wonderful sounds with out <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">all the brass and pecularity's of the older smaller ones.     Every one goes thru times in there career where taking on such projects for the challenge and instructive nature of such jobs is benificial. This is a very important part of the learning curve and I apologize Terry  if my comments were discouraging, if this is that time for you go for it with gusto.   Regard >>>Dale Erwin</BLOCKQUOTE>       Just my two cents worth <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Terry, I tend to agree with Robin on these pianos. Yes, they are challenging, but they are usually so loved by their owners it is worth struggling through with them. I've not yet encountered a Quartergrand owner that didn't just love his/her piano! The action is the only real problem and that is workable with some ingenuity and trial and fit. Joe is also right--fitting a new keyset and action stack is an exercise in frustration. So, don't bother trying to do it. Work with the action configuration that is there. If the wood brackets are coming apart, put them back together. In one case I soaked a set of these brackets (actually for a piano other than a Chickering) in a bath of coating epoxy for a few minutes until they were pretty well saturated, removed them and hung them up to let all of the excess drain off. Before the epoxy kicked over I inserted well-waxed screws in the various holes--to thread them--and let the whole mess cure. After sanding and filing off all of the excess hardened epoxy I had quite a nice looking and functioning set of brackets. They were/are probably about a strong and stable as most Select Metal modern brackets. The process worked well enough I'll be doing it again to my Decker action brackets. Rather than fussing with the originals, you might consider making new action rails (without the brass inserts) and setting them up for some suitable (i.e., modern = wooden) hammershank flanges and wippen flanges. By getting a little creative with these actions there is almost nothing you can't do. When you're finished you'll have a really happy customer. As I've said before, the owners of these pianos tend to really love them. And they will love you for bringing their babies back to life after everyone else has written them off. Del PS: Yes, their bellywork can also be challenging, but still it's mostly just good, creative woodworking. Don't be afraid of them just because they're different. That's why God gave you a brain. The individual pinblock pieces can be fitted to the plate in pretty much the normal fashion. And, if you don't want to struggle with installing the pinblock bolts from the bottom--again, it's difficult, not impossible--it doesn't take all that much to drill and countersink and install them from the top per more normal practice.  --ddf </BLOCKQUOTE> </HTML>