Hammer height conundrum on a '46 Hardman grand

[Michael Spalding]

Hi George,

As Ric B. mentioned, something does not add up, literally, if the shanks
are 1/2" off the cushion when the blow distance is 1 3/4".  The couple of
Hardmans that I've seen / worked on have regulated to fairly conventional
dimensions.  Picture the virtical distance from the rest cushion on the
wippen up to the strings.  It wil be subdivided into 1) clearance to shank
at rest, 2) hammer bore length (plus 1/2 shank diameter), and 3) hammer
blow distance.  If 1) and/or  3) are larger than they should be, then 2) is
smaller than it should be, either by design or through wear.  Let us know
what the bore distance is, for several hammers from bass to high treble. 
Also, take a look at the string grooves - how deep and long are they, and
are they perpendicular to the molding ?

Mike


> [Original Message]
> From: George Whitty <gwhitty@optonline.net>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Date: 1/10/2005 9:38:33 PM
> 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 
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives