I made the stand and feet for a Wixey gauge to measure down bearing angles at the bridge on strung pianos. I've reread the early posts on the Wixey and Beall gauges, but I still have some questions. For those of you who have been using this tool for a while, I hope you can provide me with some further assistance. What should I zero the gauge to? There seems little in a piano that is flat and level to serve as a meaningful reference. I want a proper reference point to zero to, so that the values will accurately reflect the angle of the string. What are others using as their reference? Since I am measuring both the speaking length angle and the back or waste length angle, what relationship between the two do you typically find in a new and healthy board? In an older board? Anything else I should look for, or other advice you can give me in the use of this gauge? I made a gauge similar to Jim I's. Foot spacing is too long for rear angle check in high treble with rear duplexes. I will make another base with shorter feet. Have others made another base with shorter span between feet to use in the treble? Won't the relationship between the front and rear angles be affected by how carefully the bridge top is planed down to the desired height when setting bearing at the bridge? That is, how careful one is to not plane down too much off the front side or back side of the bridge. I zeroed the gauge on the rim top today, and checked two pianos in my shop. An 1899 Steinway B, original board, STH (board shot to hell), in the shop for a new board and total rebuild. My next project. Here are some readings: Front Angle is referenced as FA, Rear angle is referenced as RA, a Fowler dial gauge reading (centered on the bridge between the pins) is DG Note 2: FA is .5, RA is .1, and DG is .009 Note 19: FA is .7, RA is .5, and DG is .003 Note 41: FA is .4, RA is .7, and DG is .001 Note 50: FA is .4, RA is .7, and DG is .002 Note 54: FA is .6, RA is .7, and DG is .004 Note 66: FA is 1.1, and DG is .010 The rear lengths from here up were too short for me to take a angle reading with my present gauge Note 72: FA is .9, and DG is .006 Note 79: FA is .9, and DG is .008 A 1916 Steinway M, rebuilt about 20 years ago, original board. Being stored in my shop. Note 7: FA is .9, RA is .5, and DG is .007 Note 25: FA is 1.2, RA is 1.0, and DG is .005 Note 43: FA is .5, RA is .1, and DG is .010 Note 51: FA is .6, RA is .9, and DG is .006 Note 54: FA is .7, and DG is .005 Note 68: FA is .6, and DG is .009 Note 74: FA is .6, and DG is .015 I'm planning on checking such measures on a Steinway A strung with new board, along with crown readings with a Jude Reveley Crownulator. Any and all comments would be welcomed. Will Truitt -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100811/87e25f3e/attachment-0001.htm> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 69751 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100811/87e25f3e/attachment-0001.gif>
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