lessons learned

[Clyde Hollinger]

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Tom,

Both are good lessons to remember.  We all know that experience is a
good teacher, although most of us hope to avoid learning that way, at
least in the sense you did.

Terry's response was good, as usual, so I won't repeat what he said.
The last time I worked on one of these buggers I talked with the owner
how repairs sometimes call for stressing the other parts a little, such
as pushing an upright jack a little to the side to get to the hammer
flange screw.  That normally works okay, but when working with brittle
plastic you can work your way into lots of unwanted additional work
right down the line.

And that's exactly what happened when I had to replace one of her damper
flanges.  I barely had to breathe on its neighbor and there she goes.
Since I had discussed the situation beforehand and gotten approval from
the owner, she paid for the work I did, but I left with one damper
flange still broken.  I pointed it out to her, but since the damper
still worked okay I couldn't see putting more money into the piano, and
she agreed.  A note on the service card now reads, "Don't touch this
piano again."  I hope I have enough fortitude when she calls again to
stick to that.

Regards, Clyde

Tvak@aol.com wrote:

> To all
>
> Today I taught myself a couple of lessons.  First of all, I will never
> break the following rule ever again:
>
> Don't ever...ever....even TOUCH a plastic flange unless it is glued to
> the doorknob of the exit door and even only then if there's no other
> way out.
>
> I replaced a set of elbows today.  I knew that it had plastic wippen
> flanges.  Why was I so careless snapping that first elbow in place?
> The price?  Removal of the spinet action to replace the cracked
> plastic wippen flange.
>
> The other 87 elbows snap in place with no further problem due to
> extreme care on my part.  Adjust the lost motion and...play the
> piano.  Hmmm...the hammer on middle C is double striking.  I'll just
> move the backcheck forward and... (What was I thinking...?)
>
> Out comes the spinet action to replace the newly broken plastic wippen
> flange.  While replacing the wippen flange I brush against a damper
> lever and...now I can replace the plastic damper flange on that damper
> lever and... the one next to it which I also bumped into with the
> screwdriver.
>
> Back goes the action and as I play the piano I realize that the damper
> lever on D5 is not damping due to it's also being cracked.  (I did
> look at them all while they were out of the piano, but it was not
> visually apparent.)  Now, I was nowhere near D5 so I wonder if this
> was a pre-existing problem, which leads me to the next lesson I
> learned:
>
> Check the piano first to see if there are any problems.
>
> BTW, my original service call on this piano was 6 months ago at which
> time I replaced 4 elbows and informed the client of the existence of
> all the plastic flanges, and the costs involved in replacing them.  I
> advised him NOT to put any money into this Lester spinet, other than
> replacing those 4 elbows that had already broken.  Six months later he
> called to tell me to go ahead with the elbows.   In the back of my
> mind I was thinking, wasn't this the piano with all the plastic
> flanges?  But rather than say anything, I just went ahead and made the
> appointment.  Which leads me to the last lesson for the day:
>
> Take better notes on each piano for future reference.
>
> I rarely share my experiences with others on the list.   Hope this was
> worth reading...
>
> Tom Sivak

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