[pianotech] Gluing Damper Felt

[William Monroe]

Risking doing improper work here, I DO have a couple different dimensions of
width available in my shop, and I cut my own, but I don't obsess about it.
As long as there is enough clearance between adjacent dampers, I'm happy.
And sometimes (like this HF Miller we did) the damper heads are very narrow,
and I couldn't find felt that narrow.  But, there was plenty of space for a
slightly wider felt.  Cosmetically, it looks nice to my eye with a little
bit of white either side of the head.  Functionally it works as well as
anything.  Maybe I should obsess more???  Nah.............

William R. Monroe



On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 11:08 PM, Terry Farrell <mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com>wrote:

> Why not buy felt the proper width?
>
> Terry Farell
>
> On Mar 1, 2010, at 11:17 PM, William Monroe wrote:
>
> Because most often I find the damper felt is slightly wider than the damper
> head.  So, there may be a mm or some such on either side of the damper
> head.  Not always, but often IME.
>
> William R. Monroe
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 4:15 PM, Terry Farrell <mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com>wrote:
>
>> Why would there be felt overhanging the sides of the damper head?
>>
>> Terry Farrell
>>
>> On Mar 1, 2010, at 4:19 PM, William Monroe wrote:
>>
>> Steven,
>>
>> As some others have suggested, I do grand dampers in the piano.  But I'd
>> add a step.  Before gluing on the felts, I use a block that simulates the
>> thickness of the damper felt to rest under the damper heads on the strings,
>> and roughly time all the dampers, sans felt.  Then I regulate the damper
>> wire bends, getting them nice and square with the strings.  Then, install
>> the felts with hot hide; the heads clamp and align the dampers.  This way,
>> when the felts are glued in, they end up with a nice even overhang on either
>> side of the head, and are about 90% regulated.  Some minor tweaking for
>> bleeders follows, but it is very minimal.  Neat method I learned from a guy
>> who has done a bazillion (maybe a bazillion and one) sets of dampers.
>>  William R. Monroe
>> On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 6:14 PM, Steven Hopp <hoppsmusic at hotmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> I'm wondering how many of you glue new damper felt on old heads and wires
>>> with dampers in the piano and/or out?  I have a set to do on a newly strung
>>> piano and this is the first set I am attempting.  I have Susan Grahms
>>> articles from the PTG technical prep manual and her method and I have a
>>> method and suggestion from a colleague who suggests something different.
>>>
>>> Thoughts?  Suggestions?
>>>
>>> Steven Hopp
>>> Midland, TX
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100302/11c9911c/attachment.htm>