vertical regulation time

[pianolover 88]

I hope you made at LEAST $600 (labor only) for all that time!

Terry Peterson




----Original Message Follows----
From: "John M. Formsma" <john@formsmapiano.com>
Reply-To: Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Subject: vertical regulation time
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 22:12:23 -0600

Dear List,

My question is how to figure a fair labor rate to charge a dealer for
vertical regulation work.

This is my third vertical regulation, so I'm thinking I should certainly
charge "learning" rates since I am not as fast as an experienced RPT.

It will help me greatly to know how long it takes you to do a complete
vertical regulation. No fudging, please! ;-)

Below is listed what was done and the time it took. If you can spare the
time, could you give me an idea of about how long it would take you to
do the same thing?

Any great ideas to help me speed up...hey, that'd be quite nice of you,
too!

Thanks so much for any help you can give. Any constructive criticism is
also welcomed.

John Formsma
***************

The piano is a 1978 Everett studio (almost the size of an upright). My
first visit on Thursday found the piano with many sticking keys and in
need of regulation. I was there 1 1/2 hrs and eased the key bushings
with the Pianotek key easing iron and spent the rest of the time
diagnosing. Had to make a second trip Saturday after getting approval
from the dealer for the regulation.

9:00 - 10:40 ( 1 hr, 40 min )
-lube all action centers w/ Protek
-tighten all hammer and all wippen flange screws (damper flange screws
were OK)
-steam the cupped wippen cushion felts, then dry ironed them
-lube damper rod hinges
-align hammers to strings -- corrected 3 twisted hammer shanks )
-spaced 4 wippens

10:40 - 11:20 ( 40 min )
-clean all key pins w/ Flitz and strips of bushing felt
-polish w/ a clean strip of felt, then lube all key pins w/ Prolube

11:20 - 11:35 ( 15 min )
-Prolube all capstans, replace keys
-tightened plate screws

11:35 - 11:55 ( 20 min )
-square/space white keys (forgot to do the black keys, but was able to
correct that while key leveling)

12:00 - 12:30 lunch

12:30 - 1:40 ( 1 hr, 10 min )
-aligned bass section wippens to capstans (All bass wippens were
misaligned to the right of the capstans. Is there a way to shift the
bass wippens over in a wholesale manner rather than papering all the
flanges? I tried loosening the main action rail screws while the action
was in place, but that yielded little if any improvement. What I ended
up doing for time's sake was papering about 20 of the 30 wippen flanges.
They all needed it, but it was taking up so much time I had to
compromise.)

1:40 - 1:55 (15 min )
-align backchecks to catchers

2:00 - 2:30 ( 30 minutes )
-determined correct key dip/hammer blow ratio. ( I think I went way over
time here, but I wanted to make sure so I did some additional head
scratching. )

2:30 - 3:50 ( 1 hr, 20 min )
-Leveled all keys
-returned various tools/items to the car (key easing iron, heat gun,
etc.)

3:50 - 4:50 ( 1 hr )
-set white key dip and black key dip

5:00 - 5:45 (45 min )
-Tuning

Total work time was 7 hrs 55 min.

I will return to finish the regulation, but that was all I had time to
do on Saturday.

I do plan to buy the labor booklet from PTG which will probably give me
the answers to my questions, but I'm never thinking about it from 9-5.


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