Spoon bender

[Dave Nereson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Alpha88x@aol.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 10:44 AM
Subject: Spoon bender


> Greetings,
>
>           Does anyone have trouble with the spoon bending tool to be
flimsy?
>
>           I am finding that when I reach back there in the action to bend
the
> spoon with the thing, I feel something giving way and bending, only to
remove
> the tool and see that IT ( the tool) bent!!!!!

    Which do you mean by "the" spoon bender?  There are several.  Get the
Yamaha type [Pianotek #JSB-1], same as APSCO #16406, from Schaff.  It's
probably expensive, but worth it.  The other
types that Schaff sells suck [#85 & #87, page 38] -- like you say, they're
impossible to use, and the shank bends before the spoon because, like a lot
of their tools, they've never tried them or had to use them on a regular
basis.
    Now, neither type will work on every single upright you encounter, but
the Yamaha type works on most.
    Determine whether the spoons are on the right or left side of the wippen
in question (see if the damper levers are mounted to the right or left of
the hammer butts).  With the fork part facing upward, slide it alongside the
wippen until it bumps into the wippen flange.  Rotate it slightly (1/8") to
clear the flange and keep slowly pushing until you feel it bump back onto
the side of the wippen on the back side of the flange.  Now you should be in
the right neighborhood.  Rotate the tool inwards toward the center of the
wippen and see if it bumps into the spoon.  Hopefully you'll hear a
metallic, rather than a wooden, click.  Now push the tool upwards so that
the fork engages the spoon (it's one of those things you just have to do by
feel), and, restraining the wippen with one hand, bend the spoon in or out.
    You can take out an action or use an action model and practice first
where you can see what's going on.  (The sightless technicians somehow
manage!)

    In consoles, you may have to remove a few keys if you're bending the
tool toward you (down), otherwise it and your hand will just hit the keys.

    In spinets, it's a pain, and in some spinets it's impossible because the
keybed won't let you get in there.  In that case, I remove the action bolt
nuts and tip the action back towards me as far as it can (it bumps into the
backs of the keys, and in actions that have a sticker rail fastened to the
action brackets, you can't do this).  Then, using the straight damper-wire
bender, I reach down between the action and the strings and bend the spoons,
just guessing on how much, then push the action back and try it.  (Trial and
error, and, yes, a pain).  On old uprights, I like this method better than
the fork-type spoon bender, since the action can tip back much farther,
giving me room to get my fist in there.
    In some spinets, you may have to chalk the ones that need adjusting,
then take the action out, make all the bends, put it back in, re-chalk, etc.
    If you need to bend the spoon toward the strings, you can undo the
bridle strap, remove the key, and let the wippen drop down until the spoon
hits the flange screw, then push the wippen down a bit father to bend the
spoon out.  Don't do this on actions with old plastic flanges.
    If it needs to bend towards you, you can restrain the damper lever and
lift up on the wippen to bend the spoon against the damper lever tail, but
you risk breaking a damper lever, unless you can restrain the tail somehow.
And if the damper lever flanges are old plastic, you've got a hazard there.

    There are other methods of regulating spoons "on the bench."  These
involve blocking (shimming with a wedge) the damper lifter rod at the point
where you want the spoons to begin lifting (1/3 to 1/2 the distance to the
string), then lifting the wippens by hand and seeing which ones are early or
late.
    Then there's also a home-made jig that takes the place of the string
plane, like a small stiff board or piece of plexiglass or something.  This
you fix at the same place the strings would be if the action were in the
piano (I think it clamps to the action brackets), and pre-adjust the spoons
from there, then check them with action back in the piano.

     --David Nereson, RPT