Gosh, I think Keith is onto something here. Unable to readily lay hands on my Skotch joiners, I had totally forgotten about the "self-leveling" function; i.e., 4 contact points instead of two. Plus [guessing], if they will penetrate flesh as easily as they do, it seems like finger pressure only would suffice instead of a hammer, thus leaving four tiny 'incisions' instead of two larger holes in the keysticks. I really must try this idea. Newt: I'm sure Nossaman could 'whup' one of these up in a New [Jersey] minute. The action spacing wouldn't be a problem, since he would abort on the damper lever flanges, drill horizontal holes in the damper levers (or facsimilies), and daisy-chain 'em on a section of aluminum conduit. However, -mounting- the assembly, sectionally or otherwise, could present an engineering dilemma! Ron: Is your al-u-min-ium (Southern version) long enough for section work, or for the entire keyboard? Could you dig it out and run some specs by -- length, rod diameter, washer diameter, and approximate number of washers (or pounds) used? I can't find the original Whurlie description, but am crazy enough to have another go at building one of these. I have LOTS of experience at building projects that ended up in the round file! Ed & Diane: Yeah, yeah... semper fi and all that <g>. You're both doing it the -right- way. For my needs, I spend a lot of time and attention to key/keyframe when doing a reconditioning. In refelting a keyframe, I "abuse" the new material as much as possible (poor man's version of a factory torture machine). Since the stack may be concurrently involved in other processes, I'm specifically looking for something quick and dirty, and something with less hassle than the backcheck weights. (And preferably, something that doesn't go sailing across the shop -- or hit me in the forehead -- when I forget that they're there and perform a mighty settling blow to a key.) Jim Harvey, RPT
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC