Hi Mike ! THIS was the clue I needed... Yes I understand the roller capstan then would move closer to the whippen center if it started below the magic line, then get farther away as it passes. Now I just have to think a bit on how the whippen heel is moving through this. Any given point on the heel is not going to change distance from the whippen center through the key stroke. So as the key raises towards the magic line, the roller capstan would roll towards the whippen center as its distance from the center decreased. Then at the magic line it would cease rolling and be as close to the whippen center as possible, continuing upwards it would reverse direction and begin to roll the opposite direction... away from the whippen center... Almost like a pendulum motion if the starting point was just as below the magic line as the ending point is above. So..... how does an angled capstan that does'nt roll at all counter this tendency... I can see I am going to have to re-read these posts and do some thinking on it :) Sorry bout the misquote... I'm sure Dale is ok with it. Cheers and Thanks RicB Ric, I wish I had reasoned out the quote you attribute to me - but it belongs to Dale Erwin. I hope he won't mind if I attempt to answer your question. Whether it ends up closer or further away depends on where, in relation to the magic line, the motion occurs. For example, if you start below the magic line and end an equal distance above it, the roller will move towards the wippen center until you reach the magic line, then move away, ending up right where it started. The "best a tilted capstain could achieve" would depend on how wide the capstain is. Mike Richard Brekne wrote: Been trying to visualize this a bit and have the following to ask you all about. Consider a capstan that was a brass roller instead of what we have today. So that as the key move and the capstan raises the whippen this brass roller simply rolls along the underside of the heal. Wouldn't this result in the roller-capstan starting off further back on the heal (closer to the whippen flange) then it ends up ? I.e. the opposite of this increasing leverage concept ? And if that is the case.... then wouldn't it be more likely that the best a tilted standard capstan could achieve is to more or less compensate for that ? Cheers RicB
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