Okay, guys. You've got me convinced...I'm going to try the brass rail conversion to wooden hammers butts. I couldn't find Spurlock's article, but I emailed him to ask him if he had the article handy in his computer files somewhere to send me. I'm not a big woodworker, but how hard can it be to drill a few holes out, right? :-) But then I guess the next obvious answer to the question is...if I'm using the Asian style butts with springs, I won't need to worry about reattaching the old spring rail, right? But, what about the jack springs? I thought that the jack springs for the Asian style were stronger than the American/European style. Or maybe I'm just imagining I heard something of the sorts. Anyway, should I worry about replacing those too? Oh, and Terry...thanks for the pics! Dave, I'll be waiting to hear when you're teaching that next class. Lol. Thank to everyone for your advice! Barbara Nobbe, RPT Pitch Perfect 859-489-4793 barbara at pitchperfectpianos.com -----Original Message----- From: Terry Farrell <mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com> Date: Wed, 26 May 2010 15:14:36 To: <barbara at pitchperfectpianos.com>; <pianotech at ptg.org> Subject: Re: [pianotech] Brass rail The first upright action that I rebuilt got all new parts. It was a Mason & Hamlin with brass rails. I followed Bill Spurlock's excellent instructions for the conversion to wooden butt flanges with complete success. It's not that difficult and I highly recommend that approach. Below are a couple photos of the job. The first one shows the original rail after being routed out to size, holes plugged, new holes drilled and a small piece added to the top for additional support of the butt flange and to serve as a stop for the damper flanges. The second photo is a shows the cross section of the modified rail.
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