Thanks Horace, I have kept the beasts so I'll take the time to experiment. It's lacquer for sure. I'll give lacquer thinner a try as per your suggestion. Alan -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Horace Greeley Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2006 11:47 PM To: Pianotech List Subject: RE: Softening hard 1980 Sohmer hammer advice requested. 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
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