Good afternoon John, Pianotek has 5 thicknesses of what I consider to be really nice bushing cloth. I cut a 1" strip of each thickness, and taper each to a point. Now you have 5 bushing-cloth gauges: Thread each through a clean bushing hole til the sides of the cloth meet, and you have a nice fit to the wire. You now have the correct cloth thickness (in 5 attempts or less), and the approximate width you will need,..okay, within a thread pull or so. You should be able to find a combination of these 5 sizes to make double-bushings. I apologize I have no record of the combinations I've used. The experimenting can be done "dry," but once you begin, the outer cloth should be methanol sized to a caul, and fully dry before bushing the inside ( i.e.: o-nite ). If you wish to use glue, the outer bushing would be the one, though it isn't necessary. After rummaging through nails, pop-rivets, etc. to find something of a dimension suitable for an "outer-bushing caul," I ended up using wooden dowel ( 3/16"? ). These were cut to 1" lengths, sanded one end to a bullet nose, and saved for subsequent jobs. For the inner layer, you will use bridge pins and methanol size (Everclear,Hooch, "whatevahh"), as per usual. BTW, recall the Susan Graham hint for final sizing? The bridge pin is fit to the collet of a low temp. soldering iron. Afterwards, I give the bushings a sip of Protek, not so much for the "lube" factor, but in belief this treatment may slow the transfer of moisture to/from the cloth. I'm open to correction, if someone is otherwise enlightened. John, I've been very pleased with the stability using these methods. A freshly re-bushed guide rail with it's perfectly-sized, perfectly-round holes, is a real "thing of beauty" IMHO, and one of the most satisfying tasks I know of. A rail to be "double-bushed" only prolongs the joy! kind regards, Mark Cramer, Brandon University -----Original Message----- From: owner-caut@ptg.org [mailto:owner-caut@ptg.org]On Behalf Of John Minor Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 9:29 AM To: caut@ptg.org Subject: damper guide rail cloth? I'm rebuilding a 1965 Steinway L with *2* pieces of bushing cloth in the damper guide rail. The outer felt is conventional red bushing cloth and the inner felt is a soft brown material of unknown composition. Anyone have a dependable solution for replacing this felt? John Minor University of Illinois
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