Whippen Rail

[Richard Brekne]

Hey there Joe, thanks for the info.

Joe Garrett wrote:

> RicB wrote:
> I havent ever fooled around with changing the height of the whippen 
> rail so
> I would appreciate any input/advice any of you care to give."
>  
> Ric,
> At present, I'm making an action for an 1863, 8' Chickering. I'm using 
> Renner parts and Rick Wheeler Keys. One of the things that Rick 
> calculated, was that the Whippen Foot was too tall.

I guess this is one of the things I am looking for then Joe,  just what 
is the calculation for deciding the height of the whippen foot.  Jim 
Ellis mentioned something along these lines in a private post to me and 
I'm sure its a valid enough variable... but I'm not going to start 
grinding off wood unless I know how much and why :)

That said... these whippens have a pretty short foot as it were. When 
first  I checked the cushion/capstan intersect was right at or barely 
above the line with the key at rest. So I suppose if anything the foot 
would have to be lengthened. I could probably replace with a bit thicker 
felt I suppose. That wouldnt hurt anyways as the origional felt was 
realllllly sloppily installed.. glue litterally everywhere... including 
on the felt that touches the capstan. Wonderful stuff :)

Still,  this has got me to thinking there must be a fairly 
straightforward way of calculating the height of the whippen center for 
a given action.

Cheers
RicB

> I made a simple jig and ground those puppie off w/a radius. Then, the 
> under felt was attached. Next, was attaching the new whippen foot 
> felt. As I have found that the Renner Whippen Foot felt has two 
> problems, (too course & not stretched), this solved several problems. 
> Once that was done, Rick rated the action geometry at a 9+, (a scale 
> of 1-10, with 10 being optimum). As this is a retro-fit, that was the 
> best we could do. But, I know this sucker will play very nicely.[G]
> Best Regards,
>
> Joe Garrett, R.P.T.
> Captain, Tool Police
> Squares R I