Steven, The way to get is experience boring hammers is by, er, boring hammers, no? You may feel more comfortable tackling one new variable at a time before moving on to the next step, in which case getting your first set pre-bored, tapered and arced by the vendor is a good idea. For hammer boring, I currently use the one from Renner USA, which works fine. Like David and Terry, I must own (at least) one of just about everything Bill Spurlock makes. That said, I have found that I can get an even more precise hammer hanging job by hanging the end hammers and connecting the dots with a straight-edge. Now mind you, the end hammers are hung according to a home-made jig to determine the hammer hanging angle and the distance between the hammer center and the hammer flange center pin at the ends of each section. If Bill or anyone capable of comparable quality would make and market such a jig, I would probably buy one. Until then, by all means, buy his hammer hanging jig. When you are ready to make the move to processing a raw set of hammers yourself (definitely the way to go, IMHO), you will be ready to start making some simple jigs for your own use. (Besides, in terms of stationary power tools, you will then have a drill press, some kind of sander and probably some kind of power saw.) There are lots of pianos out there that need new hammers. Congratulations on joining in the crusade! Alan Eder -----Original Message----- From: Porritt, David <dporritt at mail.smu.edu> To: pianotech at ptg.org <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 8:35 am Subject: Re: [pianotech] Equipment Purchase Help Steven: In my experience, if there are two devices for doing the same job and one of them is Bill Spurlock’s, that’s the one I’d buy. I have his hammer hanging jig, damper regulating jig, key bushing cauls etc. Quality stuff made by a man who does this work. dp David M. Porritt, RPT dporritt at smu.edu From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Steven Hopp Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 10:10 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: [pianotech] Equipment Purchase Help Hello all, As my business grows and having past experience in another business I have learned that the proper equipment makes a huge difference in efficiency. That said there is a huge amount of equipment necessary for piano repair and minor refurbishing. I am wondering where to spend my money? I want to be able to replace hammers and do quality regulation. Certainly with time this desire will grow to more ambitious ventures. My question is about spurlock and jarris tools. Which is the best device for hanging grand hammers and measuring string height, let off tools (sp urlock clamp). What about boring new hammers. Is there a recommended jig? If I have little experience in boring should I just order them done for me until I feel I can afford a test run? I am NOT a manufacturer of things. I want to buy something to make the job easier and faster but I can not build my own things. Any suggestions and help? thanks, Steven Hopp PianoWorks Studio 432-770-7473 Get more out of the Web. Learn 10 hidden secrets of Windows Live. Learn Now -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090217/a84b39dc/attachment.html>
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