[CAUT] F..riction (rep spring)

Fred Sturm fssturm at unm.edu
Thu Dec 2 19:49:58 MST 2010


On Dec 2, 2010, at 3:03 PM, David Stanwood wrote:

> I've been alluding to the possibility that a rep lever with very low  
> friction
> can be regulated just fine IF the hammer weight and the spring  
> dimension
> is well matched.


I think you are probably right, at least with butterfly springs. There  
is probably a minimum friction level for them, but it seems to be  
pretty low, at least based on my experience with Steinway permafree.  
Other springs, though, behave differently, and I'm not sure what to  
think about them. In particular, Baldwin style (attached and screw- 
adjusted to the rep, a coil in mid air, then in a jack slot) and  
Schwander. I don't work with them much, but the last occasions I had  
to do thorough regulation, I found that in tripping the jacks lightly  
(to fine adjust rep lever height), the lever didn't want to support  
the hammer on most of them. I experimented with increasing tension to  
the max and re-pinning both centers pretty heavy, and the symptom  
persisted: better, but the jack still wouldn't go back under the  
knuckle when I tripped it lightly with a finger. In real life, they  
seem to function just fine, and I don't experience misfires, but it  
does worry me. Makes me glad most grands these days are butterfly.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
fssturm at unm.edu







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