action center lubrication

[Gilreath@aol.com]

Newton and the list,

With all due respect to my esteemed colleague, I must differ slightly in
opinion and observation.  Please bear with me while I present and illustrate
several points.

First, Pledge and many other furniture polishes contain silicone as a flowing
agent.  That's going to be the primary source of contamination to the finish
and up in the area of the pinblock.

Second, a liberal application of 8 parts silicone to 1 part naphtha (the
mixture specified by several manufacturers) would be possibly as much as 4
ounces applied to the action centers (a VERY liberal dousing).  At an 8 to 1
ratio, this puts less than 1/2 ounce of silicone on the action parts.  Now it
seems to me to be a little difficult for that 1/2 ounce spread over 3 action
centers per note and 2 centers per damper lever to travel all the way to the
shank, down the shank, up through the hammer, transfer from the hammer to the
string during the instant of impact, travel up the string, through the
agraffe, over any felt, around the coil, down the tuning pin and  into the
pinblock thereby contaminating said pinblock.  If so, that stuff must have a
very conscious, nefarious purpose and intent.

Third, we have used this for over 2 decades, even on keybushings.  I have
rebushed many of these sets with no problem.  We have never in this time had a
problem with keytops popping off and no pin torque/pinblock problems.

While there are a number of other arguments against using any lubricant
whatsoever, I have found them to be of great practical use in getting
instruments to work in our climate when the actions wouldn't work otherwise
without repining every center in the action.  While this would be the
preferred method of treating tight centers, we don't live in a perfect world
with unlimited budgets (or even manufacturers that will stay in business long
enough to take care of these problems in some cases).

As I said, I hate to disagree and hope that I have on the most agreeable of
terms.  However, I just haven't seen the problems that we have been told to
watch for concerning this stuff.

Hope all is well and that everyone is planning to attend National in Kansas
City.

BTW, I didn't post this to the pianotech list since I'm not signed up on there
currently.

Later,

Allan

Allan L. Gilreath, RPT
Gilreath Piano & Organ Co.
Gilreath@aol.com 

In a message dated 2/18/99 12:19:07 PM Eastern Standard Time, nhunt@jagat.com
writes:

<< List and Conrad, 
 
 silicone is a REAL bad substance to have near a piano.  Silicone is
 not a lubricant, it is a strain reliever and it travels like loose BBs
 in a box car.  In a piano it will get into the pin block, under the
 key tops and into the finish.  You cannot repin the block, the keytops
 fall off and the wood will not take a finish without major chemical
 intervention.
 
 Please relegate these substances to the garbage.
 
 		Newton >>