Measurements Kawai please

[David ilvedson]

> Subject:       RE: Measurements Kawai please
> Date:          Sat, 7 Jun 97 00:04:31 -0000
> From:          Antares <antares@EURONET.NL>
> To:            "PIANOTECH LIST" <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Reply-to:      pianotech@ptg.org

Antares,

57 to 60 grams is pretty heavy for downweight.  Measure your 
downweight and upweight and divide the difference by 2 to get 
your friction reading.  I believe around 15 grams is normal.  If 
I have a piano with plenty of upweight, i.e. high 20s to 30+ I 
will typically remove weight from the hammers if possible.  
Kawai's usually have plenty of dead weight.  5 to 1 ratio!  
Remove 2 grams and you've got about a 50 gram downweight.  This 
work will decrease your upweight.  20 grams upweight is barely 
enough to keep the key under the pianist's fingers.  I use a 1" 
belt sander and do each hammer assembly by hand and eye.  Remove 
it, trim it and reinstall.  This way I don't have too much 
aligning to do.

ilvey
Pacifica, CA


> Don Manino wrote:
> 
> >210cm is the R-1 model.
> >
> >As you noticed, the action spread is not adjustable on this piano and as 
> >such Kawai does not publish an official specification for it.  By my 
> >measurement it is 113mm.
> >
> >The factory touchweight specification is nominally 57 grams for this model, 
> >so a range of  57 - 60 grams is not unreasonable.
> >
> >An increase that is larger in the bass may indicate that the rollers 
> >(knuckles) are beginning to wear. Check the shape carefully, bolster if 
> >necessary, bush the roller skin and lubricate with teflon powder. Then 
> >re-measure your touch weight.
> >
> >The key height for this model is ~67mm.
> >
> >Regarding your other service, I was wondering; Did you measure high 
> >friction in the action centers? You might want to re-think your application 
> >of lubricants here - if the centers are tight, repinning is preferable to 
> >lubricating. If you did not measure tight centers, lubricating should be 
> >unnecessary.
> >
> >Kawai America does not normally recommend lubricants in the action centers. 
> >Especially petroleum based lubricants are very harmful. You mentioned CLP, 
> >which is a sort of generic name for me, not indicating what it is made of, 
> >but if it is petroleum based it will damage the action.
> >
> >Kawai Japan sometimes recommends a light application of silicone lubricant, 
> >but this should not be applied without cause.
> >
> >McLube on the keypins may also increase wear of the key bushings. Plain 
> >Teflon powder (such as TFL-50, which does not have the base coating 
> >material) is a little better for this application.
> >
> >For more information in your part of the world I would suggest you contact 
> >Kawai Europe:
> >	101233.2767@compuserve.com
> >
> >They may have slightly different service recommendations than Kawai 
> >America.
> >
> >Don Mannino RPT, Manager
> >Kawai Piano Technical Support, U.S. and Canada
> >(Don_Mannino@compuserve.com or DonMannino@worldnet.att.net)
> 
> Antares writes back:
> 
> Thank you Mr Manino for your explaination...Since the instrument I 
> described is only 5 years old, and since the owner does not play it very 
> much (maybe 30-45 minutes a day), the action is in a relatively good 
> state. The rollers are not worn really and from the stringmarks on the 
> hammers, one can tell that the instrument has not been played very much.
> The only thing I noticed, was that the centerpins were just a bit slow, 
> due to humidity.
> If I say CLP, I mean Protek CLP, highly reccomended earlier on the list 
> for lubricating centerpins.
> Anyway, these centerpins do not go slow enough for repinning, and the 
> lubricant made the downweight "measurable".
> As I understand from your words, the downweight of this type of Kawai is 
> almost 60 grams, so...now I know that this is the standard meant for this 
> instrument, and I will inform my customer of this.
> I was just wondering why nothing helped to make it lighter.
> 
> Thank you for your words of advice.
> 
> Antares
> 
> 
ilvey
Pacifica, CA
ilvey@a.crl.com