Hygrometer

[Robin Hufford]

Richard,
     I have seen the soundboard drying room at Steinway.  The boards are
brought out and immediately ribbed on dedicated clamping jigs that are
soundboard specific as to each model,  which make it possible to rapidly
locate and clamp ribs onto them.  The clamps are built into the jigs
and, really, very little effort is required.  The fixtures are not
movable and don't leave  to the operator any discretion  as to where the
ribs will be  placed as the ribs are held in the correct location
relative to the soundboard  by the fixture, which, of course, also holds
the soundboard.   The boards are simply placed into the fixture; glue
appropriately applied, either to the board, ribs or both, memory fails
me here,   the ribs next;  the clamps are pulled down; and, presto, a
ribbed soundboard.    At the time I was there, in 1987, they ribbed the
soundboard within ten or eleven minutes of its removal from the box,
and, I was told,  this was considered extremely important, which, it
is.  This entire process was very easily achieved with their dedicated
setup.
     The process is so simple that, it seems to me, an essential
consistency of results to the degree attainable with wood, should be
easily achieved if adhered to, which, again,  should be easy to to do.
However, given all of the other obvious indications of  supervisory
ineptitude, so abundant in their production of late, perhaps, even this
simple requirement may not be ensured by quality control.  However, I
think the more likely explanation for the failure of crown in newer
instruments probably comes from inadequate drying of the boards before
they are ribbed.
Regards, Robin Hufford
Richard Brekne wrote:

> Hi Dale...
>
> I think whats been said is that the shop climate is not
> controlled. I dont think anyone has said anything about
> climate control in the hot box. Perhaps a small detail
> really given the extremes in Humidity in New York, but
> still.. So.... anyone seen Steinways Hotbox ?
>
> To take all this a step further.... I wonder how much
> difference it makes with such climate control, given the
> fact that from the first minute an instrument is place on
> the trucks to ship out, or at least from the first minute
> they are on the floor of some store... the climate is
> probably just as uncontrolled as most other places.
>
> I mean ok... say NY Steinway installs state of the art
> building climate control systems, super seal their
> intruments and ship them off to some Jacksonville store
> where the Humidity is 90 % at 90 F. Seems to me you have
> just delayed the inevitable.... or what ?
>
> RicB
>
> > >   It certainly does seem strange to me that in any
> > > factory relying on compression crowning  in this age of
> > > technology would want to insure a more uniform
> > > temp./R.H. levels to srictly control emc. When I visited
> > > Mason& Hamlin the hot box temp. humidity and air
> > > circulatuion was meticously maintained for even EMC
> > > levels prior to pressing. Mason and Hamlin is rib
> > > crowning their boards by the way.
> >
> > ...Dale Erwin
> >
> > >
> > >
>
> --
> Richard Brekne
> RPT, N.P.T.F.
> UiB, Bergen, Norway
> mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
> http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html