A Move for Steinway was Hygrometer

[Farrell]

Comments interspersed below:

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Brekne" <Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 01, 2002 7:20 AM
Subject: Re: A Move for Steinway was Hygrometer


> Farrell wrote:
> 
> > The best place would be any place with good interior climate control! I would think that if a mfg wanted every piano to be as good as it can be, then climate control would be the only way to go.
> >
> > Terry Farrell
> 
> True enough, but if you were not going to have such a system.... where would be the best place in the states ?

I dunno. Likely some remote mountain valley where a variety of geomorphic factors keep the climate stable. I think La Paz, Bolivia (or somewhere in Bolivia) is like 72 degrees F every day and the humidity is very consistent. Some place like that.

> Btw... what kind of climate control system are you runing in your shop?

A good basement-type dehumidifier. It can keep the RH about 45% to 48% on its own. An AC unit that can easily pull the RH down to 38%. Typically, if I have a few days out of the shop (I turn AC off or on real low), RH is 48% or so. If I am in the shop (or want to run the AC) I can keep the RH right between 38% to 40%. If I dry it out like that, and then put a little heat to it, I could come close to drying out a board without even using a hot box. 

> When your start  taking panels out of that newly built hot box, what are you exposeing them too? 

When boards come out of the box, they will go into a climate of about 40% RH and 75 degrees F at worst (pretty mild climate). Just a tiny tad more humidity than than in the hot box. I plan on putting DC rods under the board when ribbing and installing in a piano with a blanket over the top - that should keep it real, real close to hot-box conditions.

> And what happens when you
> send the piano back to that Talahassee suburbian home with the half on half off air conditioning unit?

My plan is that every piano that gets a board in my shop also gets a proper DC installation (and maybe a string cover). I also realize that you can't guarantee that the system will be plugged in. I would like very much to install a little chip of some sort (daydreaming here only) that could document that the system has been powered since delivery. That way you could tie a warranty into documentation of the DC system use. I think all you can do is educate the owner of the EXTREME importance of plugging the darn thing in.
 
> Ya cant win for loosing !

All you can do is try.

> Did you try out that Bamboo trick yet ?

No,  but I will likely take a several-inch wide swath of panel and put a thin rib on it and put it in the hot box. Once calibrated, it will work as a mechanical hygrometer - not all so unlike your Bamboo trick. 
 
> ricb
> 
> Richard Brekne
> RPT, N.P.T.F.
> UiB, Bergen, Norway
> mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
> http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html
> 
>