[CAUT] Whippen Rail

[Richard Brekne]

Thanks Roger, and all you others posting on this.  I have to admit I 
hadnt thought of this little trick, and I might have to give it a look see.

What I ended up with as a first shot is raising the whole whippen rail 
about 0.8 mm.  I used 1 mm paper and I suppose screwed down tight that 
adds up to about 0.8 mm. Then I set the whippen center to hammer center 
distance to 113, tho only god knows if thats a good measurement for 
these beasts. Seemed to work out reasonably well. I got a real nice 90 
degree angle between the hammer shank and jack with all at rest and 
regulated correctly, and  I got the white key intersect at about 3-4 mm 
through the key stroke.  I have to rebush the keys and take care of a 
bunch of friction issues so I'll move on to those for the moment, but 
I'll get back to this in a couple days. The whippen rail has obviously 
been moved around quite a bit before,  visable by at least 3 seperate 
washer indentations on the rail where the screws hold it to the 
brackets. Somebody had really be experiementing around too,  the 
furthest out was 4-5 mm from the furthest in. So I decided it was a good 
idea to try and optimize it.

All this puts me on the question tho of how to arrive at the proper 
height for the whippen center.   Assuming you have good reason to doubt 
an action,  how do you go about determining the optimal height for a 
given balance rail, hammer rail, and string to keybed distance ?

Cheers
RicB



Roger Jolly wrote:

>
> Hi Ric,
>              I would start by checking to see if the spread is close 
> to 113mm.  If it is off, shim the rail to meet this parameter, 
> regulate a few notes in the centre and at either end, and see what it 
> looks and feels like.
>   Shimming the forward side of the wippen rail will tilt the rail up a 
> little and have a dramatic effect on the magic line.  I have fixed 
> many an action with this trick.
>   Now you have some food for thought.  <G>
>
> Happy new year.
> Roger
>