<HTML><HEAD> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2715.400" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV><FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>Bob:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>What do you mean that in order to get the note to play well you need 41mm blow?  Do you mean repetition, or do you mean regulation?  Did the piano regulate properly before you changed the action parts?  A Steinway D should regulate at 48 mm.  Forty-one mm is too short a blow for that piano.  What is the dip?  It should be 10 - 10.5 mm.  Rotation of the wippen rail can be checked by measuring the spread between the hammer flange center pin and the wippen flange center pin.  It should be 112.75 mm (4 7/16"), for a Hamburg.  If it's less than that you can shim the top of the whippen flange out to increase the spread.  Before I went plugging holes in the hammers and redrilling, I would make sure that you have all the other regulation specs in order.  If you measured a 2" bore and that's what you have, then I would check everything else before I reduced the bore to by that much.  Sometimes plate elevations are set wrong and sometimes the stack is set too low.  I would take a few extra hammers from an old set bored at 48 mm and experiment with changing the stack position.  Raise the stack using some metal washers to the standard bore dimension and see where the convergence lines fall when the action is regulated.  While your at it, check the articles that appeared in the journal a few years back on action elevations by Bob Hohf.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2> </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>Should you decide to plug and redrill, then plugging with a dowel, or hammer shank will work fine.   </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>  </FONT></DIV> <DIV> <DIV>David Love</DIV> <DIV><A href="mailto:davidlovepianos@earthlink.net">davidlovepianos@earthlink.net</A></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt Arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=hullfam5@yahoo.com href="mailto:hullfam5@yahoo.com">Bob Hull</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To: </B><A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech</A></DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> 8/19/2003 10:34:36 PM </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: overcentering justified?</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV><FONT size=2> <DIV><BR><BR><B><I>Roger Jolly <roger.j@sasktel.net></I></B> wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid; WIDTH: 100%"> <P><BR><BR>6. Finally on Steinway's. Is the wippen rail slightly rotated? I have <BR>shimmed quite a few sets of flanges to correct this, to restore the magic <BR>line, and action spread.  <BR><BR>PS I don't know if hammer rake has been mentioned, but over centering is a <BR>no,no, with a new set of hammers period. Slight under centering, you can <BR>always file or play in, to fit. <G><BR><BR>Regards Roger <BR><BR><BR></P></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>Thanks, Roger for these comments.  I wanted to let you know and also, David and Ed, what I observed today when I was back at this piano.  <P>These strings do rise toward the bridge.  Maybe about 3 degrees of rise - but I'm not sure if I measured that accurately.  However, I know that the hammer shank should match that amount of rise upon contact with the string so I put a little line level on the shank.</P> <P>On some of the old hammers the wear is significant so I had to guess about how much more hammer there would have been when it was new.  The holes I have already bored, unfortunately, are probably making the hammer "too long" and undercentering.  The bore distance I used was the result of doing the simple math: subtracting the heighth of the hammer flange center pin from the string height ( and not accounting for a rising string). </P> <P>I don't think that there is enough said about that kind of potential error.  </P> <P>Tomorrow, I want to plug a couple of these long bored hammers and rebore them at the distance of 48 mm like the old ones.(Instead of the 2 inch bore)  Then, I will try those on the piano before I do the rest.  Is this a smart approach?  I tried regulating (aftertouch priority method) the long bored hammers  and their new shanks but to get a note to play really well, a real short blow was required, like 41 mm.</P> <P>The plugs will need to be end grain on the side, true?  What is the best way to make those?  A hardwood dowel would have incorrect grain orientation I think.  </P> <P>Can you visually detect rotation in a wippen rail? <BR></P> <P>Gratefully,</P> <P>Bob Hull</P> <P> </P> <P>_______________________________________________</P> <P> <HR SIZE=1> Do you Yahoo!?<BR><A href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=10469/*http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com">Yahoo! SiteBuilder</A> - Free, easy-to-use web site design software </FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>