Hammer height conundrum on a '46 Hardman grand

[Stéphane Collin]

Hello George.

If you just have to make it work, you could just rise the hammer line as 
much as needed (if possible) to bring with 10 mm key dip the hammer about 2 
mm close to the string, where the let off should occur (if possible).
If this is not satisfactory enough, you are up for a total geometry 
analysis, which I think is not thoroughly described in Reblitz.
Lots of fun with your analog device.  And all the work you do on it, by 
analogy, is work you do on yourself.  And by analogy on the world around 
you.  And by analogy, ... beep communication interrupted beep communication 
interrupted beep




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "George Whitty" <gwhitty@optonline.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 4:38 AM
Subject: Hammer height conundrum on a '46 Hardman grand


> Hi, Everybody:
>
>   I was given a Hardman 5'5" grand piano by a total stranger, started
> fiddling with it and am now knee-deep into cleaning, repairing and
> regulating it, having a hell of a good time, I must say!  I'm following
> Arthur Reblitz's chronology on the regulation, have done every step up to
> "set the hammer height", where I encounter an anomaly:  he instructs the
> reader to set the hammers to sit 1 3/4 inches below the strings, though 
> adds
> a caveat that the manufacturer may specify differently.  On my little 
> piano,
> which may never have been regulated since it left the factory, the hammers
> are sitting something like 2 5/16" below the strings.  So I have three
> questions:  first, is it really possible for the felt capstan contact to
> have compressed enough that it takes 2 to 2.5 full turns of the capstan to
> take up the slack and restore the distance to 1 3/4"?  Second, I seem to
> have a "Steinway style action", in
> which, rather than a hammer rest rail, each wippen holds its own hammer
> rest.  At this time, the hammer shanks rest less than 1/8 inch above the
> hammer rests, or else actually just sit on the hammer rests (I understand
> that the hammer knuckle is actually supposed to support the whole thing,
> sitting on the repetition lever just a fraction above the jack);  when I
> raise the capstan enough to lift the hammer to 1 3/4" below the strings, 
> the
> hammer shank now sits almost 1/2" above the hammer rest.  Is this correct?
> There's a picture on page 50 of the Reblitz book showing a grand piano
> action that looks about like this.  Finally, is there an entirely 
> different
> spec for Hardman grands in this measurement that I should know about?
> Thanks
> very much to any of you who'll help an enthusiastic newcomer to the care 
> of
> the Last Great Analog Device...
>
> George Whitty
>
>
>
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