In the case of the Sohmer, Mr. Foote's idea was very useful: iron over damp flannel placed on hammers. Not much variance in tone color from soft to loud, but they DID stop "crashing"!!! Thump --- Horace Greeley <hgreeley at stanford.edu> wrote: > > Hi, Alan, > > At 10:32 PM 11/26/2006, you wrote: > >Hi Thump, > > > >Maybe a moot issue now. But I have a S&S M action > in the shop now with > >over-lacquered hammers. I tried washing out the > lacquer with acetone. I > >soaked the hammers with a generous helping of > acetone. Four applications of > >acetone over 2 weeks. Vigorous needling, squeezing > the hammers to try to > >breathe life into these lacquer brickettes. I made > almost no progress. > > Hmmm...are you sure that they were hardened with > lacquer and not > plastic ("keytop")? If lacquer, then I would > suggest using lacquer > thinner. One or two really healthy doses should do > it. If "keytop" > (which, if from the factory, it is something else), > then acetone is > the right way to go...but, perhaps with a slightly > different > technique. If you pull the stack, and, rotating it > so that the > hammer tails are free, set the tails into some kind > of shallow pan (I > use old aluminum ice cube trays). Then, flood the > hammers with > acetone until it runs freely down/out of them. As > soon as you are > done with that, cover the hammers with aluminum foil > and wait...4 - 6 > hours or overnight. Repeat this a couple of times. > In either case, > once you see the hardener starting to "run" out of > the hammer as you > apply the next batch of thinner/acetone, blow the > hammers out with > compressed air. > > The "trick" in the above is to be patient until > whatever hardener has > been used is again in solution. Remember that it > takes time for > "keytop" material to dissolve in acetone, and that > it is usually > broken up or relatively thin when that is done. > Once it hardens up > in a hammer, it turns into a brick...so, getting it > back into > solution is going to take some time. > > >Called the piano owner and explained that the > hammers were beyond repair. > >Now I'm replacing these with S&S hammers and Abel > shanks (it is from the > >teflon era). It'll be interesting to see how these > newer S&S hammers sound. > >Hammer #1 weighs 10.1g and #88 weighs 5.2g - > unbored untapered. > > All of the above said, one does have to weigh the > cost of time spent > rescuing something v. the time simply replacing it. > > >You might have better success than I did, but these > hammers were the worst > >I've ever seen. > > I've done this any number of times, most often with > at least > reasonable results...still, as noted, sometimes the > best thing to do > is to start over. > > If you can, I'd suggest seeing if you can keep the > old parts to > experiment with and see if you can (eventually) do > something with > them. I think that the only such set the I have > actually had to > throw away was one that had been similarly treated > and then > deep-needled to death through the crown. The poor > hammers simply > fell apart once the hardeners had been dissolved. > > Best. > > Horace > > > > > >Alan > > > >--Alan McCoy, RPT > >Inland Northwest Chapter > >Spokane, WA > >ahm at webband.com > > > > > >-----Original Message----- > >From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org > [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf > >Of gordon stelter > >Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2006 11:17 AM > >To: Isaac Sadigursky; Pianotech List > >Subject: Softening hard 1980 Sohmer hammer advice > requested. > > > >Am trying to soften the hammers on a 1980 Sohmer > grand, 5'7". > >The hammers are those ones with the purple > underfelt, and the yellow lacquer > >shoulders. ( What a color combo !!! ) WAAAAAAAAY > too hard !!!! > >Have already sanded out minor grooves, and now > planning to "sugar-coat" > >strike points with shallow needling. But would > prefer specific advice from > >someone who has already worked with this hammer > type, in a similar > >predicament. > > > > Thanks! > > Thump > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >____________________________________________________________________________ > >________ > >Do you Yahoo!? > >Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail > beta. > >http://new.mail.yahoo.com > > ____________________________________________________________________________________ Want to start your own business? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/r-index
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