[pianotech] rcs design considerations

Dale Erwin erwinspiano at aol.com
Thu Aug 5 09:01:40 MDT 2010


That is a really thick panel. 11 mm  is well over 400.  The only panels I've witnessed this thick have been in older Masons BB with .400 eastern spruce boards. I agree with Davids  choice of thickness for Sitka boards in Steinways. Even in a D... 9 ish mm in the middle regions is plenty.
  By the way if you see enough Steinway soundboards come out you will soon learn that they had no hard and fast spec. on thickness
  Ie. A model B boards thickness can vary.... as much as  .375 and as little as .320.  Some Ds are as much as .390 and as little as .340.  Pretty big range. I think it just depended on what came out of the panel sander and if smitty was keeping his eye on the ball that day. 
  By the way Gene if you are rib crowning with a cut crown method  allow the ribs to be a bit higher in the middle as they will be thinner towards the end and  if you don't allow for some extra rib height that number will naturally reduce overall.
 

 

 

Dale S. Erwin
www.Erwinspiano.com
Ronsen Piano hammers
Sales,custom prep and tech support
209-577-8397
209-985-0990

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: David Love <davidlovepianos at comcast.net>
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Thu, Aug 5, 2010 7:38 am
Subject: Re: [pianotech] rcs design considerations



Actually on the Boes 9’ piano the panel thickness mighteven be more like 11 mm, I don’t recall exactly.  
 

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com

 

From: David Love[mailto:davidlovepianos at comcast.net] 
Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2010 7:28 AM
To: 'pianotech at ptg.org'
Subject: RE: [pianotech] rcs design considerations

 
Boesendorfer, for example, employs a panel thickness of about 10mm instead of 9 for Steinway for that sized piano (though they also use a lessacute grain angle).  I typically use 8 mm for smaller Steinways and 9 mmfor larger ones.  So the question was if you were doing a full RC&Sdesign but the only difference was a soft rim what would you dodifferently.  I’d probably just increase the panel thicknesssome.  I don’t think I’d change the rib dimensions or theother design elements.   Ron mentioned beefing up the rim which ineffect then changes the rim mass in order to be able to use what would be thesame basic design.  That’s another approach.  I think thequestion though is given a soft wood rim without altering the mass what changesmust be made to accommodate the difference.  So what happens then in asoft wood rim that’s different from a hardwood rim and what do you needto do to compensate.  Rate of energy loss is one difference.  Butunless you are going to modify the rim there really are only a couple ofchoices: change the panel thickness and/or grain angle, change the ribdimensions (RC&S design so you can’t change the EMC at glueup).  Bridge height might also be a consideration.  I’d probablyincrease the panel thickness and reconsider the grain angle.  
 
David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com
 

From: Dale Erwin[mailto:erwinspiano at aol.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2010 10:00 PM
To: davidlovepianos at comcast.net; pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] rcs design considerations

 
Thicker than what and how thick is always the question. Thicknessis somewhat wood species dependent and any mans best guess. But  iahve myopinions about this
   Gene are you confused yet? 

 

 

Dale S. Erwin
www.Erwinspiano.com
Ronsen Piano hammers
Sales,custom prep and tech support
209-577-8397
209-985-0990

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: David Love <davidlovepianos at comcast.net>
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Wed, Aug 4, 2010 9:28 pm
Subject: Re: [pianotech] rcs design considerations

Assuming same scale tensions I would probably use a slightlythicker panel. I don't think I'd alter the rib dimensions. 



David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com



From: "Gene Nelson" <nelsong at intune88.com>

Sender: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2010 21:15:19 -0700

To: <pianotech at ptg.org>

ReplyTo: pianotech at ptg.org

Subject: [pianotech] rcs design considerations

 

Hello list,

Just curious: For a typical radius crowned design for a9ft grand that would go into a Steinway - how would you alter the design if thepiano had softwood rim? 

Would you alter the design?

Gene


 
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