<HTML>In a message dated 9/1/2002 2:12:44 AM Pacific Daylight Time, Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Subj:Re: Hygrometer Date:9/1/2002 2:12:44 AM Pacific Daylight Time From:<A HREF="mailto:Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no">Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no</A> Reply-to:<A HREF="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> To:<A HREF="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> Sent from the Internet      Hi Rick</BLOCKQUOTE>         Sorry Maybe I should have clarified . If the belly guy grabs 6 soundboards out of the hot box on a muggy summer morning pulls it out into the uncontrolled belly room and doesn't get around to ribbing the last couple till lunch time I'm guessin that there is going to be a tremendous difference in the amount of crowning from the first board to the last. I've observed this phenomena in a variety of Stwys, Mason ans Hamlin and others Some have lots of ridging or cracks.These actually sound better than others that come to my shop with "a perfect board" meaning no cracks but also no crown and no eveidence that it ever had any but, cosmetically perfect. These sound wooden with short sustain in the "money notes". They also need replacing.    My point was that the belly room should be climate controlled and I have no idea if it has been changed. When a board is pressed up with to high a an emc in the compression crowned method the board can reverse crown later as witnessed by Terry F. in one of his recent posts.   My building isn't climate controlled either I just rib quickly as soon as the board comes outta da box but. In Calif. we rarely have a hot muggy day like the east and midwest. I have many summer days where the R.H. is 30% all day. Great belly weather!Eat your heart out! >>>>>>Dale   <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px"> Hi Dale... I think whats been said is that the shop climate is not controlled. I dont think anyone has said anything about climate control in the hot box. Perhaps a small detail really given the extremes in Humidity in New York, but still.. So.... anyone seen Steinways Hotbox ? To take all this a step further.... I wonder how much difference it makes with such climate control, given the fact that from the first minute an instrument is place on the trucks to ship out, or at least from the first minute they are on the floor of some store... the climate is probably just as uncontrolled as most other places. I mean ok... say NY Steinway installs state of the art building climate control systems, super seal their intruments and ship them off to some Jacksonville store where the Humidity is 90 % at 90 F. Seems to me you have just delayed the inevitable.... or what ? RicB > >   It certainly does seem strange to me that in any > > factory relying on compression crowning  in this age of > > technology would want to insure a more uniform > > temp./R.H. levels to srictly control emc. When I visited > > Mason& Hamlin the hot box temp. humidity and air > > circulatuion was meticously maintained for even EMC > > levels prior to pressing. Mason and Hamlin is rib > > crowning their boards by the way. > > ...Dale Erwin > > ></BLOCKQUOTE> </HTML>