Fred writes: << I have found a fairly rapid drop in friction after re-pinning, somewhat similar to drop in torque when stringing, where after two to three months (granted, of heavy use, and possibly drop in humidity), friction will drop by at least a couple grams, and number of swings will increase from three to five, from four to seven, or so. In a sense, what I am doing is "floating" frictional parameters - making it too tight to begin with so it will be right longer. And removing as little felt as possible to preserve the bushings as long as possible. << I would also describe most of my repinning the same way, with the growing exception of new Steinway hammer shanks and underlevers. Some, over the last three years, have tightened up after the sale and had to be reamed. I found that if I loosened them up to perfect, they would stay near that. If I left them a little tight, they stayed that way or even regressed to tighter. It was explained to me, by a factory figure, that the same felt had been used with larger pins and the difference was in more wetting solution application. The felt was supposed to shrink more and be firmer, but instead, continued to expand with use and tighten down on the pin. I pin these pianos to be right on from the get-go. Usually 5 swings is a central aim, but I will let them go 7 if the weather is dry. >> And I sure wish action makers would revert to starting off with 19 centerpins, instead of 20.5 or so. >> I was told that the automated machinery used to drive these pins in the parts requires the larger sizes to reduce the bend and failure rate of the machines. regards, Ed Foote RPT www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/ www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html <A HREF="http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/399/six_degrees_of_tonality.html"> MP3.com: Six Degrees of Tonality</A>
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