Hi Alan, A couple other thoughts: you might try simply adding moisture to the picture. Apply water to the surface with a brush, for instance, before inserting the cauls. Or steam (as I have described in an earlier post, using a steamer followed by the heated cauls). Water is a major component in the felting process, so if you want a "semi-permanent" result, you want both heat and moisture. Think of ironing a pair of wool pants (I guess that's a image not too many of us have anymore, so maybe substitute cotton). Without steam to help, it takes a lot more time and pressure to get the fibers to lie down evenly (become smoothly ironed). If you live in a damp climate, there is usually enough moisture already in the fabric. In a dry climate, things are different. BTW, this applies to burning/twisting shanks as well. I find it often helps, and is necessary, to wipe the shanks with a wet cloth a couple times before using the heat gun. About the mortise size, mortises and balance holes become smaller when the wood is dried - moved to a drier climate. I find that almost all my new pianos need to have balance holes reamed and bushings well- ironed after they have been here a while. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico fssturm at unm.edu On Apr 6, 2009, at 11:17 AM, reggaepass at aol.com wrote: > List, > > I am working on a twenty year old Baldwin R which has not been > played much. The front rail key bushings were in various stages of > too tight. The key pins are .145", so I initially eased with a . > 147" straight broach in a rheostat controlled soldering iron (set to > a setting used successfully on many previous outings). Barely made > any difference at all. Stepped it up to the next larger size > broach, .150". Things improved but just barely. I was not getting > the slight but positive "knock" from side to side that I usually > work for, but the keys were at least coming back up (!). I don't > know if the bushing cloth is too thick, or too spongy, or if the > mortise was somehow too small to begin with (if that is even a > possibility), but I do not have great hopes for the keys remaining > functional for long as some are already showing signs of needing to > be eased again. > > So my question is this: Has anyone used V S Profelt with > appropriately sized cauls overnight as an effective fix for bushings > that are too tight? > > Thanks, > > Alan Eder > > > Get the scoop on the live music scene in your area and hit a show > tonight. Check out TourTracker.com! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut_ptg.org/attachments/20090407/1e96e1d4/attachment.html>
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