hammer travel

[Overs Pianos]

David, Terry et al,

The burning angle, and the overall hammer alignment procedure is 
indeed a fundamental step in getting the best tone from an 
instrument. To answer your post briefly Terry, a hammer might look to 
be vertically aligned, but if the center pin axis is not parallel to 
the hammer rail,  the hammer will slew sideways as it lifts. The 
solution is to cast the hammer so that it travels such that the tail 
of the hammer passes directly through the rest position of the hammer 
striking point. The flange is then packed to achieve a vertical lift 
of the hammer. When a hammer set is correctly aligned, both the 
hammer striking points and the hammer tails will be evenly spaced, 
without any hammer burning angle problems.

When hanging hammers, it is always best to remove as much travel as 
possible from the shanks prior to hanging the hammers. This greatly 
reduces the amount of casting which is required to correct the 
burning angle once the hammers are hung. After gluing each hammer I 
check the burning angle for each hammer with itself, before the glue 
is set. Sometimes I'll find a shank which wasn't travelled correctly 
prior to hanging. If this is the case I will adjust the hammer angle 
on the offending shank so its burning angle is correct. This will 
place the hammer angle out some, relative to the rest of the set, but 
once the flange is packed (the next day) to bring the hammer back to 
a vertical position both the burning angle and the travel will be 
correct. If I had positioned the hammer so it was vertically 
positioned while the shank had a burning angle problem, I would have 
to cast the hammer and pack the flange later anyhow. The overall 
process of hammer alignment and burning angle reduction involves all 
three adjustments, shank casting, flange packing and hammer position 
shifting (to treble or bass) being made together. Experience and 
perseverance will result in the technician developing the skill set 
required to achieve a properly aligned hammer set. It is one of the 
most difficult tasks in regulating. Since only a small percentage of 
techs seem to get totally on top of the skill, this is one subject 
which could well be taught at conventions to good effect. Our 
performance as a discipline would be considerably enhanced if a 
greater percentage of our number got on top of this difficult task.

Regards,
Ron O.

>Maybe I'm missing something here - and maybe I'm just going to show 
>off some of my ignorance - hanging hammers is not my expertise - but 
>how will bending the shank affect hammer travel? Seems to me if a 
>hammer travel has a horizontal component (you don't want any - all 
>movement should be vertical) during its travel through its arc, the 
>solution is to travel the hammer/shank/flange by inserting the 
>appropriate thickness of traveling paper under the flange (in this 
>case on the bass side of the flange screw). If you bend the shank, 
>yes you can move the hammer over one way or another, but it will 
>still have a horizontal travel component.

You thoughts are correct, but both adjustments, packing and casting 
will need to be done together, as mentioned in the first part of this 
post.

>
>Yes?
>
>Terry Farrell
>
>----- Original Message -----
>
>
>A few days ago I had an interesting experience with a Baldwin D 
>Concert Grand.   New Ronsen Wurzens and shanks/flanges(not sure what 
>the brand was).  I had noticed lately that the hammers were 
>traveling towards the bass, i.e. depress the key and the space on 
>the bass side of the moving hammer and its neighbor was compressing. 
>I went through and started at the first tenor burning it in.  That 
>is heating the shank with an Ungar heat gun and twisting the hammer 
>towards the direction of compression or in the instance the bass. 
>I then spaced the hammer back between its neighbors and check it 
>again.   When it was right, I immediately noticed the tone of the 
>hammer was blooming...opening up...I did have to fit the hammer to 
>the string which fixed some buzzing sounds.   I was really able to 
>hear this difference because I still had an original hammer one note 
>up. 
>
>
>
>This is a really important part of hanging hammers.   Travel the 
>shanks first, hang the hammers, then travel the hammers with a heat 
>gun.   Yamaha Concert Services said the same thing...big part of 
>voicing the hammers...
>
>
>
>There are a number of hammer hanging articles PTG sells in a 
>combilation, for instance Cliff Gears and Steve Brady which expond 
>on this...
>
>
>David Ilvedson, RPT
>Pacifica, CA 94044


-- 
OVERS PIANOS - SYDNEY
    Grand Piano Manufacturers
_______________________

Web http://overspianos.com.au
mailto:ron at overspianos.com.au
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