Ok, This is weird

[David Skolnik]

Greg -
Here are some additional questions/observations, which I don't think came up:

The H.F. Miller is 70 years old.  Are the parts original?  If not, that 
could be a factor.  What part of the action is actually contacting the 
pinblock, the drop screws (aka "regulating screws" as per Michael Gamble) 
or the hammer flange screws.  If the hammers had been filed and action 
regulated repeatedly over the 70 years, the drop screws could have been 
turned up until they contacted the block. If the parts are newer, perhaps 
the hammer flange, or screw is of a larger dimension. If it hasn't been 
regulated or cleaned in 70 years, well, that's yet another issue.

Certainly, as suggested, you should raise the glide bolts (assuming it has 
such), thus lowering the action height.  Once you have the action out, I'd 
be curious to see the string plane measurements, that is, whether the warp 
you observe in the plate is reflected in the string heights.  You'd want to 
take more than the usual "first and last of each section" samples.  Is the 
bottom of the pinblock equally curved?

Good luck -

David Skolnik



At 07:13 PM 9/16/2005 -0400, you 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
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