Vertical Damper Lever Set Screws

[Brian Lawson]

Hi John,

Not a new design, been on many European pianos like Bechsteins for ages.
Though I can't say that I've experienced the same noise, they certaintly do
wear more at the screw contact point. When reconditioning action with new
felts I back them out and regulate the wire as ususal.

Brian Lawson, RPT
Johannesburg, South Africa

TEXOMA CHAPTER
http://texoma.int.chapter.tripod.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Piesik, John (JPIESIK)" <JPIESIK@arinc.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2001 8:12 PM
Subject: Vertical Damper Lever Set Screws


> On the back of the damper levers, on some new verticals (Petrof), are
little
> brass set screws. These set screws appear to aid in factory regulation,
most
> likely, on some sort of bench fixture (my guess), in order to quickly
> regulate the pedal-to-damper lift adjustment without having to bend damper
> wires.
>
> The problem is, these set screws, separated only by the damper lever felt,
> rub on the chrome-plated damper lift rod. The result is a very noisy,
> irritating grrrrroan when the sustain pedal is depressed. It's my opinion,
> that if left as is, eventually, the felt between these little set screws
and
> the lift rod will eventually wear out resulting in metal-on-metal.
>
> I lubed the damper lift rod at the damper lever felts with microfine
teflon
> and lubed the damper lift rod pivot points with Protek. Still noisy. Next,
I
> backed out all of those little set screws on the damper levers (next time
> I'm removing them completely so they can't fall out into anything). Now
the
> sustain pedal is whisper quiet.
>
> However, the damper-to-pedal lift now needs re-regulation (it turned out
not
> too bad, though). I think it was worth the price to finally be rid of the
> sustain pedal "grrrrroaning."
>
> Have you seen/experienced these pesky screws before? I suspect that this
new
> design may not be worth the effort/expense if we end up having to remove
it
> to make it work correctly.
>
> John Piesik, RPT
>
>
>