Fred writes:
<< Take Ed Foote's
notion of how Steinway is making things more cheaply, exemplified by
"plastic glue and microwaving" in the production of rims, for
instance. Utter hogwash. The making of rims is probably the most
archaic and inefficient part of the whole operation. A gang of six to
eight guys come into the rim room with a stack of maple plies, plus
the appropriate finish veneer. They run the plies individually through
the jig that applies glue, with one of them brushing glue where there
are any thin spots or voids. They carry the stack to the caul, and
bend it around. They apply the various outer cauls, and the clamping
jigs. Lots of evening out work, adjusting here and there, getting it
to bend evenly around the curves. Tightening a bunch of clamping bolts
by hand, finishing with an enormous torque wrench. The whole thing
left to dry/cure for hours, usually over night. Maybe they sometimes
do two a day per caul (if so, first thing in the morning and last
thing at in the afternoon). Mostly one a day. Not a sign of microwaves
anywhere. If there are any, they sure don't work very well, or they'd
be able to take each rim off right away and start another. >>
Gee Fred, you are pretty free with the insults. Or maybe you know more
about hogs than the process I have witnessed at the factory. The last two
times I saw them put a rim together, they put the "book" together,then
wrapped it in a metal coverlet for the last layer. After the thing was clamped
down, they hooked up the metal ends of the cover to a high frequency
transformer. It was explained to us that this cured the glue in a matter of hours.
Maybe great for production speed, but it was NOT the way the rims were put
together for the first century of the brand.
And if you want to make the point that the physical properties of the
glue are unimportant to the way a composite assembly entrains, you will have to
explain why. And while you are at it, maybe you can explain why they
were still using hide glue for the soundboard ribbing, (this was in 1975 ). I
was told (at the factory,by the guy that was doing it) that it was because
it makes a better sound transmission. Exactly what are you using for
sources?
Ed Foote RPT
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
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