[CAUT] action stack protocol

[Kidwell, Ted W]

I was just faced with this alignment issue on an S&S B. I was replacing the hammers, shanks, and repetitions. The existing alignment/spacing was very erratic as was the string spacing at the capo bar. I inherited this piano on the job with no hammers installed. So I really had no benchmark and had to start from the get go. Now I have an action that is as aligned as well as I would ever want with parallel and evenly spaced flanges. I don't think it took an inordinate amount of time or redundancy of work. Here is what I did:


 1.  Install the new reps making sure they were centered on the flange screw and papering them so that the fly was centered on the letoff button.
 2.  Install the flanges, again making sure the screws were exactly in the middle.
 3.  Make minor adjustments to hammer and/or repetition flanges to center shank on rebound cushion
 4.  travel shanks and install hammers
 5.  Insert action into the cavity and check to strings. (Most hammers needed a very slight shift to the right so I loosened the screws on the stop block and put a couple of 14F punchings behind it. Then I made a few minor adjustments to the hammers to align them as I wished with the strings in the agraffe sections. They were still good in relationship with the reps.)
 6.  Straighten the strings in the capo sections using a string and eyeball. Make unison width the same as in the agraffe sections. Make sure damper guide holes align with spaces between unisons.
 7.  Make minor adjustment to the hammers in the capo sections to align with strings.
 8.  Finally, look at action from the back and make minor adjustments to reps to align the end of the balancier with the hammer flanges. Make sure there is clearance between adjacent reps.

Ted Kidwell, RPT
California State University, Sacramento
Capistrano Hall, rm. 153
6000 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95819-6015
916.278.6737



________________________________
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Willem Blees
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 12:25 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] action stack protocol

Paul

After removing everything, put on the lef off buttons first. It will be easier without the wips in the way. Attach the wippens next and space them. Next put on the shanks, and more or less space and travel them to get them close. But I wait until I get the hammers to space and travel the shanks. I then space the hammer in the piano to match the strings. The final step is spacing and/or traveling the wips under the knuckles.
Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT
Piano Tuner/Technician
Honolulu, HI
808-349-2943
www.bleespiano.com
Author of
The Business of Piano Tuning
available from Potter Press
www.pianotuning.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Paul T Williams <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu>
To: caut at ptg.org
Sent: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 6:24 am
Subject: [CAUT] action stack protocol

Hi all,

Y'all might remember my mentioning the rebuilding of an entire action stack on a Baldwin D (1956) with Renner action parts, Ronsen Wurzen hammers and those crazy conical front rail punchings!

I've partially rebuilt many actions...ie new hammers, shanks, flanges on some, new wippens on some, just some new let-off buttons and hammers on existing shanks, etc, but I've never gone down to bare frame and start from scratch.

Question:  is there a proper protocol on which to install first, second, etc?  My thinking is to install new let-off buttons first (in existing holes), then wips along with travelling, then shanks/travelling.  Any problems with this order?  Also, would it be more prudent to use the existing let-off button wires and leave them in the rail.  The new ones came with the wires on, so I would have to unscrew them all possibly taking wood with it on removal. Removing the old wires from the rail might damage the holes in the rail, eh?

What say you, oh wise ones?

Paul
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