[pianotech] HFM encounters of the third kind

[Dean May]

A drop of CA glue to glue the screw to the flange works wonders on the
re-assembly. Breaks loose easily with a screw driver once you get it all
lined up. 

Dean

Dean W May (812) 235-5272 voice and text

PianoRebuilders.com (888) DEAN-MAY

Terre Haute IN 47802

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Nossaman" <rnossaman at cox.net>
To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2011 6:14 PM
Subject: [pianotech] HFM encounters of the third kind


>
> It all started out on one of those "trapped" notes, when an old friend and

> long time customer referred one of her students to me for piano service. 
> While it wasn't her fault, it WAS a Henry F Miller spinet. Strike one. 
> When I arrived, the piano was sitting about three feet out from the wall, 
> with all the stuff that was on top now piled on the bench, which was 
> against the wall next to the piano. Strike two, and a foul down the first 
> base line. We muscled it back to the wall, I unloaded and retrieved the 
> bench, and got a look inside. Right smack in the middle, there was a 
> broken hammer shank. Now here's where it starts to get interesting. There 
> are people, and I was one of them once or twice many years ago, who can 
> get a hammer assembly out of a spinet through a superhuman series of 
> contortions and incantations. This, I can still do, but it's one way 
> magic. The problem is getting the bloody thing back in when you can't see 
> what's happening, can't tell enough by feel to make up for that, and have 
> a demonically possessed jack spring loaded into the very center of any 
> attempts to get around it. So I, slow learner that I am, eventually gave 
> up trying and in more recent years, just pull the action. JUST pull the 
> action, he says, as if there were anything "just" about it. Unhook all the

> hangers, and pull all the keys out, since there isn't clearance with them 
> in. Remove the front board stops and brackets from the sides, because the 
> action won't clear them. Remove three screws on top, and five at the 
> bottom of the action to separate it from the piano. Verbally fend off well

> meaning but scary offers to help just as I was getting the thing past the 
> last obstacle (the damper lifter lever under the bass plate strut), and 
> set it down on the dark entry path rug rather than the beige carpet. So 
> far so good, or I've overlooked something deadly. With the action 
> nominally at my temporary mercy, I pulled the offending hammer assembly.
>
> There it is - strike three. I was rewarded with a vision of a floppy 
> hammer and a wad of Scotch Magic Mending tape as big as my thumb randomly 
> and loosely packed around the break. I'm here to tell you folks, Magic 
> Mending Tape isn't, and doesn't. Cutting the MMT off, I found one of the 
> most wonderfully insane things I've ever seen in a piano, which is no 
> small thing, as the competition is pretty steep. It was a Band-Aid (Curad,

> actually, I think), complete with center pad. No glue whatsoever. So when 
> the band-aid didn't heal it, and the MMT didn't mend it, it was considered

> beyond further attempts, with all the best shots already used up. Oh, I 
> didn't mention, someone at his church gave the piano to him. Gee! The 
> break was about a third of the way down the shank, and proved to be 
> straight across once I got all the pressure sensitive tool kit scraped 
> off, which I thought very weird. But then...
>
> Out to the truck, pull the shank from both parts, grab a new shank, and 
> head back inside. Putting the butt back in, I once again verified that, 
> even with the thing lying on the floor where I can see it and reach 
> everything, the jack is still demonically possessed and spring loaded 
> against successful access and that makes all the difference. Eventually, I

> got the thing in, set the action in the piano, and glued in the shank. As 
> that dried, I installed all the screws, stops, brackets, and pedal rods, 
> and reconnected the action to the keys. Sigh. Tuning time.
>
> Oddly enough, it was pretty close to pitch, on average, but the tuning was

> all over the place. Made me consider again that the tuner possibly WAS 
> responsible for the "repair", both displaying similar skill levels. 
> Matters not, it's less bad now.
>
> I was about cooked by then, at 82°, put the box back together and 
> submitted a considerably bigger bill than I had originally anticipated. I 
> hadn't quoted him anything specific on repairs, but he watched some of the

> gladitorializing from the dining room, so he understood the reason for the

> total.
>
> Back home for lunch. Another morning in paradise.
> Ron N
>