Rebuilding Artist Benches (New Thread)

[Lance Lafargue]

Rob,
Just lately I've done several repairs and wondered some of these same
things.  At first glance I can't imagine them not being worth working on
since they are so expensive new.  I find the rocking to happen from the
four plate screws in the center that screw into the press-board bottom of
the seat (stripped screw hole) and also from the metal to metal joints that
are "pressure-fit" (I forget what it's called when a pin is driven in, then
hammered to widen and tighten the two parts together).  I wondered what
taking the parts out and beating them on an anvil would do to tighten them.
 I have also found the stop collar to be out of adjustment and the allen
screw to be stripped.   This causes the stool to be allowed to be raised
higher than intended and the whole mechanism gets out of wack.   The last
two benches I worked on were Baldwin and Yamaha (both 70's).
Lance Lafargue, RPT
New Orleans Chapter
Covington, LA.
lafargue@iamerica.net

----------
> From: Robert Goodale <Robert.Goodale@nau.edu>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Rebuilding Artist Benches (New Thread)
> Date: Sunday, February 01, 1998 5:39 PM
> 
> Has anyone looked into to rebuilding artist benches?  I have a number of
> them that not only need recovering (upholstery or "Nauga" if you will),
> but also have various problems with the adjusting mechanism. 
> 
> A common problem that I have found with many older benches is that they
> start rocking on the "X" lifting support, and many simply become
> difficult if not impossible to turn the handles to adjust. Thus the
> question is: is it a worth-while proceedure (cost vs replacement) to
> strip and recover these things with simi-professional results, along
> with the needed mechanical repairs? Is there a source out there for
> parts? If so, has anyone successfully built new benches from scratch
> with new parts? Just occured to me like a "worth-while" topic for
> discussion.
> 
> On a related topic, for practice and studio use, does anyone have
> comments on the cheeper artist benches out there (AKA the "Petite"
> benches such as that found on P. D-1 in the PianoTech catalogue). Do
> these hold up as well under regular use, or are they better suited for
> the occassional home user? 
> 
> 
> Rob Goodale, RPT