Reducing weight was RE: older kawai whippen assist springs

[Alan Barnard]

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I have a customer with a Baldwin console who has MS and I really need to lighten the action for her if possible. 

After minimizing friction, adjusting the dampers so they lift a little later in the cycle, what else can make a difference?

Can you/should you shave and cove hammers like you can in a grand?

Weaken the return springs a little?

Add lead?

Any ideas on what's worth doing here?

Alan Barnard
Salem, Missouri


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Dean May 
To: Pianotech
Sent: 11/22/2005 7:26:07 PM 
Subject: RE: older kawai whippen assist springs


I would take some weight out of the hammers. For every gram you take out you’ll reduce downweight by 5-6 grams. Plus what really makes a piano feel like a heavy touch is the inertial weight, not static down weight. Adjusting the whippen springs will not reduce the inertial weight. Only removing actual weight will do this, which taking weight out of hammers does.
 
How do you take weight out of hammers? Get a tail shaping jig from Spurlock. Cut an arc on your disc sander. You can also taper the hammer sides on the disc sander. Get a drug dealers scale off ebay that measures to the tenth of a gram (cost about $30) to precisely keep track of how much weight you are taking off each hammer. You don’t want to take too much off or your upweight will go too low and the action will seem sluggish. 
 
The last Young Chang I did reduced static down weight by 10+ grams (from 58-65 down to around 50). I even took one lead weight out of each key to bring up the weight up a little. That’s weight out of the hammer and lead weight out of the key. All in all I took about 4+ lbs of weight out of the action (that translates into inertial weight reduction) and the results were phenomenal. The customer had some serious arthritis issues and I needed to make a dramatic reduction.
 
I still have a lot to learn on balancing an action but I am really happy with what I’ve been able to accomplish. My understanding is that if you don’t take any actual weight out of the action you will not reduce the inertial weight, and that is what really makes an action feel heavy.
 
Dean
Dean May             cell 812.239.3359
PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272
Terre Haute IN  47802
 
-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of TOM DRISCOLL
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 7:41 PM
To: Pianotech
Subject: older kawai whippen assist springs
 
List,
    I'm servicing an older (1970 ish) Kawai grand tomorrow with very heavy touch.
    I'll be doing the usual ,i.e. easing tight balance rail holes , key bushings, polish and lube keypins , capstans, lube knuckles, rep levers, jacks , regulate----yada yada yada.
    
    My question is about these whippen assist springs-- I'm prepared to experiment and figure it out, but am wondering if anybody has some guidelines-tips for regulating these.
    Thanks and best wishes to all for a safe holiday.
    Tom Driscoll RPT
    
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