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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: =
black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=Tompiano@aol.com =
href="mailto:Tompiano@aol.com">Tompiano@aol.com</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A =
title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> August 06, 2003 4:28 =
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Teflon Bushings,
(S&S)</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 =
FAMILY="SANSSERIF">Yes, changing their entire traditionally made =
action parts
to the Teflon style was a bold move. And yes, you have to give them =
credit for
venturing out. <BR>But.... the flip side of Steinway is this
ultra-conservative company which, to this day, is paranoid (and =
in no
hurry) when it comes changing a lousy screw. They will test, test, and =
further
test the validity and durability of a screw for over a decade before =
actually
making the change.<BR>That being said, I still find it rather
interesting how Teflon passed their testing regiment. The =
problems
would have had to show up early on in testing and demonstrate that =
this
material was going to cause oodles of problems. Maybe during those =
dark years
( as Steinway refers to it) they completely left their guard down and =
let
things slide a bit.<BR>Tom Servinsky</FONT> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>To understand this you =
have to go
back a few years and consider the shape the company was in at the time =
these
bushings were introduced. For decades leading up to this point =
relatively little
money was being put back into the company to maintain or upgrade either =
the
facility or its equipment. (It wasn't until the CBS buyout that the =
company
turned the corner and started on the road back from oblivion.) At the =
time the
action making machinery was in pretty bad--as in <STRONG>really</STRONG> =
bad--shape. Compared to the sloppy felt bushing work being done at the =
time the
Teflon bushing looked pretty good. If it was rushed to production it was =
probably out of desperation. It seemed a perfect solution--instant =
action
centers without the necessity of having to put all that money into =
maintaining
all that horribly obsolete equipment. Not to mention the huge amounts of =
time it
would take. I'm sure the company knew how to test these things properly =
but they
may not have had time.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>In my opinion the =
Teflon bushing
was fundamentally a good idea. The initial implementation was =
flawed--the small,
smooth surfaced bushings that were poorly fitted to sloppily drilled =
holes in
poorly conditioned wood didn't work very well in the real world. Ribbing =
the
outer surface of the bushing helped and increasing their diameter helped =
even
more. All of the various reasons for the problems of these bushings has =
been
hashed and re-hashed many times on this list. I'll just say that had a =
method of
adequately stabilizing the wood been worked out, had better precision =
and
quality control techniques been implemented during assembly and had =
workable
techniques for field service been developed earlier on we would probably =
still
be using them. And we'd probably be wondering why the rest of the =
industry still
refused to adopt them.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#000080>Del</FONT></DIV>
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