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Tom,
<p>Both are good lessons to remember. We all know that experience
is a good teacher, although most of us hope to avoid learning that way,
at least in the sense you did.
<p>Terry's response was good, as usual, so I won't repeat what he said.
The last time I worked on one of these buggers I talked with the owner
how repairs sometimes call for stressing the other parts a little, such
as pushing an upright jack a little to the side to get to the hammer flange
screw. That normally works okay, but when working with brittle plastic
you can work your way into lots of unwanted additional work right down
the line.
<p>And that's exactly what happened when I had to replace one of her damper
flanges. I barely had to breathe on its neighbor and there she goes.
Since I had discussed the situation beforehand and gotten approval from
the owner, she paid for the work I did, but I left with one damper flange
still broken. I pointed it out to her, but since the damper still
worked okay I couldn't see putting more money into the piano, and she agreed.
A note on the service card now reads, "Don't touch this piano again."
I hope I have enough fortitude when she calls again to stick to that.
<p>Regards, Clyde
<p>Tvak@aol.com wrote:
<blockquote TYPE=CITE><font face="Helvetica"><font color="#000000"><font size=-1>To
all</font></font></font>
<p><font face="Helvetica"><font color="#000000"><font size=-1>Today I taught
myself a couple of lessons. First of all, I will never break the
following rule ever again:</font></font></font>
<p><font face="Helvetica"><font color="#000000"><font size=-1>Don't ever...ever....even
TOUCH a plastic flange unless it is glued to the doorknob of the exit door
and even only then if there's no other way out.</font></font></font>
<p><font face="Helvetica"><font color="#000000"><font size=-1>I replaced
a set of elbows today. I knew that it had plastic wippen flanges.
Why was I so careless snapping that first elbow in place? The price?
Removal of the spinet action to replace the cracked plastic wippen flange.</font></font></font>
<p><font face="Helvetica"><font color="#000000"><font size=-1>The other
87 elbows snap in place with no further problem due to extreme care on
my part. Adjust the lost motion and...play the piano. Hmmm...the
hammer on middle C is double striking. I'll just move the backcheck
forward and... (What was I thinking...?)</font></font></font>
<p><font face="Helvetica"><font color="#000000"><font size=-1>Out comes
the spinet action to replace the newly broken plastic wippen flange.
While replacing the wippen flange I brush against a damper lever and...now
I can replace the plastic damper flange on that damper lever and... the
one next to it which I also bumped into with the screwdriver.</font></font></font>
<p><font face="Helvetica"><font color="#000000"><font size=-1>Back goes
the action and as I play the piano I realize that the damper lever on D5
is not damping due to it's also being cracked. (I did look at them
all while they were out of the piano, but it was not visually apparent.)
Now, I was nowhere near D5 so I wonder if this was a pre-existing problem,
which leads me to the next lesson I learned:</font></font></font>
<p><font face="Helvetica"><font color="#000000"><font size=-1>Check the
piano first to see if there are any problems.</font></font></font>
<p><font face="Helvetica"><font color="#000000"><font size=-1>BTW, my original
service call on this piano was 6 months ago at which time I replaced 4
elbows and informed the client of the existence of all the plastic flanges,
and the costs involved in replacing them. I advised him NOT to put
any money into this Lester spinet, other than replacing those 4 elbows
that had already broken. Six months later he called to tell me to
go ahead with the elbows. In the back of my mind I was thinking,
wasn't this the piano with all the plastic flanges? But rather than
say anything, I just went ahead and made the appointment. Which leads
me to the last lesson for the day:</font></font></font>
<p><font face="Helvetica"><font color="#000000"><font size=-1>Take better
notes on each piano for future reference.</font></font></font>
<p><font face="Helvetica"><font color="#000000"><font size=-1>I rarely
share my experiences with others on the list. Hope this was
worth reading...</font></font></font>
<p><font face="Helvetica"><font color="#000000"><font size=-1>Tom Sivak</font></font></font></blockquote>
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