On a similar note, wool can be manipulated with heat and pressure as well, sometimes in conjunction with steam. For example, I like to steam wippen heel cloth to fluff out the compression area, then iron it with a hammer iron (in heat-controlled soldering iron) - if you don't iron, you'll need to adjust capstans very soon - and brush with teflon powder as part of any recondition. Makes a good bit of difference to the feel of the action. Together with polishing capstans with Flitz (faster than putting them on the buff wheel, in my experience), and applying McLube or ProLube. Another felt rehab that is an essential part of my reconditioning jobs is to scuff sand and iron the let off punchings. One of my most unfavorite regulation experiences is to try to fine adjust let off, only to find that a tiny turn in any direction increases let off by about 1/32 to 1/16" - and then you turn 350 degrees and very little happens until suddenly you're blocking. Especially on Steinways, with the tiny jack tail "nub" (is there a correct term for this?), and the fact that it is rare to have the nub perfectly centered in the punching. Once the indent is turned away from the nub, you're in virgin felt until you get all the way around. So you need to find a position in virgin felt that will produce the correct let off if you want to make the regulation last - if you regulate so the nub is on the incline of the edges of the indent, you'll find blocking hammers fairly shortly down the road, as only a tiny bit of felt is contacting a tiny bit of nub. Ironing, using a fair amount of downward pressure, solves this problem by flattening the felt. If the indents are deep, a bit of sanding is needed as well. I guess if you had a fine nozzle to direct steam, you could fluff out with steam, but I haven't managed to do that successfully. (Steaming would be much more feasible with wippens off the rail and out of the way, but I tend to replace felt or buttons when I replace wipps). With Steinways, which have let off buttons angled inward, it's best to have the stack off so as to make sure you iron it flat (how would I know that?). When buttons are perpendicular, you can iron with action in place. Mark mentioned re-sizing key bushings. At this point, I like to put all keys in Spurlock key clamps, run my travel iron (steam source) over them, following closely with bushing sizing cauls (the parallel sided ones from Pianotek, in a heat controlled soldering iron). I like to use the heated cauls briefly a couple times - maybe three - in preference to leaving them in a longer time. I have the impression that multiple short ironings (a second or two) gets the sizing done, but avoids "pulling" the glue into the felt, so the felt stays softer and less noisy and wear-prone. BTW, my steam sources cost me a dollar or so each at thrift stores or yard sales - travel irons and percolators. I expect the steam cleaner Mark Cramer mentioned in another post would be a good bit better, but the cheap used things will get the job done. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico --On Monday, July 21, 2003 10:05 AM -0500 Mark Cramer <Cramer@BrandonU.CA> wrote: > This was a "first" attempt Lisa. > > Denis Brassard (Banff Centre for the Arts) suggested this approach after a > recent success using Fred's (Sturm) method of resizing compressed > key-bushings (steam & Spurlock cauls). > > Again, the main objective was to re-fluff the bass dampers and remove any > crusting. Too much steam and you would remove the dampers along with the > crust. > > I hit the dampers "head-on" (as you would if cleaning with compressed air) > and just kept working the spray pattern around til the surface was clean. > You will soon realize just how clean they will/won't come. > > I don't use anything else on the damper felt. Though the steam-cleaning > did not result in a spanking white new appearance, it fully restored > function. > > I was just exploring the dividing line between "reconditioning" and > replacement. In most cases it's good to bear in mind replacing bass damper > felts 'only' often gives a near "100 %" improvement. > > I will try this again soon on some grand dampers. > > best, > Mark Cramer, > Brandon University > > -----Original Message----- > From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org]On Behalf Of > Lwellerrpt@aol.com > Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2003 7:24 PM > To: caut@ptg.org > Subject: Re: amazing, but true > > > Mark- > > Please describe your steam cleaning method. Also do you do a other things > to > felt to rejuvinate or preserve them? > > Lisa Weller > _______________________________________________ > caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives > > _______________________________________________ > caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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