Ok, This is weird

[Greg Newell]

Susan,
         I can see that I should have taken a picture of this mystery. On 
the Samick product I removed the check clocks and the keyslip in an effort 
to slide the action out and relocate the little dowel connecting the trap 
work and the damper tray. It had popped out and was jamming the dampers up 
off the strings from a move across country. When I found that the action 
wouldn't come out I started looking for a why. I noticed that the ends of 
the pin block were higher than the middle and that the middle was dragging 
down on the hammer flange screws. I next removed the music desk and it's 
glide rails followed by the stretcher and stretched a line across the top 
front edge of the plate and found a gap (the previously mentioned 3/8" or 
10mm) between the string and the middle of the plate. While the glide bolts 
may provide a way to get the action out it certainly will not solve a 
warped plate. My questions was what if anything should be done about this. 
Especially if the glide bolt adjustment does NOT do the trick. The Samick 
customer is a district court judge and while it's way out of warranty I 
hope she tries to cram it down Samick's throat. If it's possible that this 
warped some time after manufacture then I apologize and stand corrected. If 
not it never should have been sold in the first place.

regards,
Greg



At 10:38 PM 9/16/2005, you wrote:
>Perhaps though the symptoms seem the same, the cause is different.
>
>Check the glide bolts - turn them up and see what you get.
>
>Check the Samick to see if the action brackets are *growing*. Do any
>hammers block?
>
>If the plate of the Henry F. Miller actually did warp (which seems awfully
>strange) you perhaps can still save the piano by taking a jack plane and
>removing some of the pinblock in the middle, till the action clears with
>the glide bolts set conservatively.
>
>Oh, have FUN ...
>
>Susan
>
>At 07:13 PM 9/16/2005 -0400, Greg wrote:
>>Listees,
>>         I've never encountered this before and now I've seen it twice in 
>> the same week. 2 pianos both from very different manufacturers and from 
>> different eras coming in to my neck of the woods from 2 entirely 
>> different climates and regions both have the same problem. I went to 
>> each of these customers homes and for one reason or another found it 
>> necessary to pull the action. (Sorry, both are grands). I found that the 
>> pin blocks were touching the center 2 octave action screws and it was 
>> impossible to pull the action as we normally due. I was able to pull off 
>> the stretcher on one of these and found to my surprise that the pin 
>> block was intact. No delaminations at all which is what I expected to 
>> find. Instead I found after fishing out one of my most important tools 
>> (string) that the plate was warped downward in the center by roughly 
>> 3/8" or 10 mm pushing the pin block into the action.
>>         If any of you have ever run in to this problem especially in a 
>> rebuilding capacity, what if anything have you done about it? I know of 
>> no way to un warp cast iron so I suppose that's out of the question. Is 
>> the piano scrap now? Is it possible that the warp happened recently and 
>> did not exist at the time of manufacture?
>>         FWIW, one of the pianos is a 70yr old (or there abouts) Henry F. 
>> Miller grand and the other is a 15-20 yr. old Schumann (Samick product). 
>> The first actually has some potential to be a fine instrument if it 
>> weren't for the warped plate. The second never was and never will be 
>> anything but a P.O.S.P.S.O. Were talking an absolute waste of materials here.
>>         I'd love to hear your thoughts so.... fire away!
>>
>>regards,
>>Greg
>>
>>Greg Newell
>>Greg's piano Forté
>>mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net
>>_______________________________________________
>>pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
>
>_______________________________________________
>pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives

Greg Newell
Greg's piano Forté
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net