[CAUT] center pinning changes

[Joe And Penny Goss]

<G>
An hour after a bath there is enough lanolin behind the ear to use as a
lube.
This is what my flute players to use to lube their flute joints.
Joe Goss RPT
Mother Goose Tools
imatunr at srvinet.com
www.mothergoosetools.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Ross" <jrpiano at win.eastlink.ca>
To: "College and University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2007 3:24 PM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] center pinning changes


> Coming from Scotland, I remember the Saturday night bath. :-)
> I now shower every day, a habit from my time in the Navy.
> So my repinning, now involves, Protek, or Goose Juice.
> John M. Ross
> Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada
> jrpiano at win.eastlink.ca
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "John Delacour" <JD at Pianomaker.co.uk>
> To: "College and University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
> Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2007 4:40 PM
> Subject: Re: [CAUT] center pinning changes
>
>
> > At 12:39 -0400 8/9/07, Ted Sambell wrote:
> >
> >>...one continually runs into pianos one hundred years old in which
> >>the centers are still perfect. They used no lubricants, but
> >>evidently took the time to do things properly.
> >
> > Quite so -- or almost.  I have just been recentring the hammers of a
> > Kirkman upright from about 1870 which has had by no means a charmed
> > life and which most people would have taken to the dump.  The pins
> > were original at 1.18 mm and not one of them was either loose or
> > unacceptably stiff.  I recentred throughout with 1.20 mm German
> > silver centre wire.  Today I have inspected the centres of an 1895
> > piano with an Isermann action.  Since this piano has had very light
> > use and  is virtually as good as new, I shall probably not even
> > re-centre but use Protek, since most of the centres here are also
> > perfect.  It is a real pleasure to work on old actions from the great
> > makers.
> >
> >>Renner do wonderful work, so it is mystifying why they should have
> >>this problem.
> >
> > I also have recently acquired a 1905 Lipp with a Renner action
> > (rather unusually, since at the time they generally used Keller.  I
> > very rarely find a Renner action in an old piano and there is nothing
> > very special about it, and certainly not the centres.  If they did
> > such wonderful work then, it's surprising so few makers recognised
> > it!  I don't regard their work now as wonderful either.  The really
> > great German and French action makers are long gone, together with
> > dozens of mediocre makers.
> >
> >>I just use a little teflon powder on my fingers when handling
> >>centerpins. In the old days we were taught to run the pins through
> >>our hair before inserting them. Of course, back then people washed
> >>their hair once a week. so it was a good source of lanolin. I think
> >>graphite is unnecessary, and  messy stuff anyway.
> >
> > I have better things to do than wash my hair every day and never do
> > centring jobs until about 3 or 4 days after washing it, since this is
> > the very best way to get just the right amount of lubrication on the
> > pin and ease the passage of the pin through the wood, without which
> > either it will creak and seize or require so much pressure as to risk
> > bending the pin, and it is remarkable how many bent pins one
> > discovers when decentring original work.  If a centring job simply
> > must be done when my hair is newly washed, then I wipe the pins on a
> > rag steeped in tallow.
> >
> > JD
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >