If you had a shopper or now called the zapper instead of repinning you could have just heated the pin a little and it would burn away the acess bushing cloth and allow the pin to rotate freely and safe time from repinning. At 11:07 AM 12/10/00 -0500, you wrote: >I had this situation arise on a 12 year old Kimball two days ago. The keys >were front heavy so you never saw any lost motion. If you pushed the key >down in back, the wippen would fall and the jack would go under the butt. I >removed the action and removed the wippen from the worst offending note. The >flange center was almost froze solid. WAY over ten grams friction. Repinned >that one and the ten or so others that were not always firing and problem >solved. Apparently, the wippen weight was enough to drop the wippen and >reset the jack, but with the little up-pressure from the keys, the slow >wippen/flange center prevented the wippen from returning all the way and the >jack from resetting. > >Repin worst ones, lube the rest, action works great..........at least in >this case..........for now...........I think..........hope it lasts! > >Terry Farrell >Piano Tuning & Service >Tampa, Florida >mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Dave Nereson" <dnereson@dimensional.com> >To: <pianotech@ptg.org> >Sent: Friday, December 08, 2000 3:04 AM >Subject: Re: misfiring jack > > >> To: H. Pengelly, re misfiring jacks: >> >> I've run into quite a few pianos where the jacks won't return all >> the way because the action parts just aren't heavy enough to return the >> keys all the way (assuming key bushings and balance pin holes aren't too >> tight, capstans are polished, action centers aren't too tight, etc.). I >> usually end up weighting the keys on these (I've never used those >> springs that insert in the key button and help the key return, but I >> guess that's a possibility). If you put the weights as close as >> possible to the balance pin (towards the capstan just enough to make the >> key return), it doesn't affect the touch too drastically (these are >> usually cheap spinets and consoles we're dealing with here, not fine >> touch-weight regulation of concert grands for concert pianists). If >> possible, put the weights underneath the keys, so the capstans are still >> accessible for regulating lost motion. Sometimes this doesn't work >> because the weights clunk on the keybed or keyframe. Then you have to >> put them on top, which might necessitate removing each key to adjust the >> capstans, but what else can one do? Use the springs? >> Other actions require more than the acceptable amount of lost motion >> in order for the jacks to return because the shape of the hammer butt >> under the butt leather is too "humped". Sometimes shimming the hammer >> rail up (decreasing blow distance) helps this, but not always. I did >> run into one action that had a sharp edge on the jacks and they would >> scrape the butt leather. I ended up removing all the wippens, rounding >> the edges of the jacks, re-graphiting (or Dag), and putting them all >> back. >> Some poorly designed actions just cannot be optimally regulated >> without modifications. >> Instead of the screw-on key weights, I suppose you could go to the >> trouble of removing leads from the fronts of the keys, if there are any, >> or drilling holes sideways thru the ends of the keys and inserting small >> round weights, or if there's room, adding small weights to the back ends >> of the keys that face the strings. Any of the above will of course >> change the touch-weight, but if it makes the piano playable, as opposed >> to not-playable, and if the pianist isn't sensitive to the touch-weight, >> what the heck? Has anyone ever added the little round weights found in >> some grand damper levers to upright wippens? >> --Dave Nereson, RPT, Denver Chapter PTG >> >> >> >
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