Fred, This isn't meant to be technically informative (though it might be ;-)) but when I was first learning the trade I worked in a rebuilding shop here in Cincinnati that employed a few ex-Baldwin factory workers. After Baldwin moved their operations down south there were quite a few of these guys around Cincinnati. Cliff Geers was the foreman in the soundboard assembly area and the fellow I learned about belly work in my early years, Lloyd Reinhardt, worked for Cliff in the factory putting in concert grand soundboards. His take on setting downbearing was "nickel, quarter, dime"...that is the low tenor was set at the thickness of a nickel, middle tenor to that of a quarter, and the high treble to that of a dime. I'm sure they had gauges in the factory but Lloyd was semi-literate and he built soundboards, recapped bridges and installed pinblocks using this method with a pretty fair degree of success for about 30 years after Baldwin flew the coop. The available technical data, access to methods and instruction has improved so much in the last 30 years that it's not funny. Now we talk about Wixey gauges that read in 0.1 degree increments and bubble deflections... Eric Eric Wolfley, RPT Director of Piano Services College-Conservatory of Music University of Cincinnati -----Original Message----- From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Fred Sturm Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 11:25 AM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] [pianotech] Baldwin Accujust I'm about to do my first accujust restring this summer (donated L), and have questions about procedure: the tap down tool I assume is something on the order of a rod with a hole drilled in it, just above the size of the pins, and I was thinking of making one of brass. Is that a good idea? For lifting, I was thinking of a slide hammer of some sort, rather than prying against the plate (with a wooden fulcrum), but haven't come up with an easy to make jig to fit around the pin under the string and pull up. Anyone have such a design? Or is prying with a coil lifter just fine? I was planning on using a Wixey gauge, which reads in 0.1 degree increments. Which means that I guess one bubble division on Baldwin would be close to 0.3, two bubbles just under 0.6, and three between 0.8 and 0.9 degrees, with the resolution of the Wixey. Am I reading the tables right? Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico fssturm at unm.edu On Apr 23, 2009, at 3:10 PM, Ron Nossaman wrote: > Scott Rogers wrote: >> I have a Baldwin L to restring, and I can't remember what steps are >> necessary to setting proper down bearing with the accu-just hitch >> pins. I know Baldwin used to loan out a downbearing gauge for >> setting DB on each unison. Does anyone know if they still offer >> this, and if so contact #'s? >> Thanks for your help. >> Scott Rogers, RPT > > Bearing1.txt is from a Baldwin tech sheet, direct from the source. > Bearing4.txt is a conversion chart to relate the instructions in > bearing1 to degrees, so you can use a Lowell gage, Wixey, or > whatever, instead of Baldwin's gage. > > Ron N
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