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Wondering how you 'remolded' the flange rail?

Dan,

Are you a machinist in one of your other lives? I see a Hardinge label and a lathe in the background...

"Wondering how you 'remolded' the flange rail?"

I traced the outline of the profile I wanted on the end of the rail and then made about six cuts with a table saw and a little rounding with a file.




I was a R&D machinist for ten years and when I left that job I was going crazy without access to a machine shop so I ended setting up my own.

Brilliant. I'm sure there are a lot of professional piano techs out there who appreciate and envy your resourcefulness and craftsmanship. I love your tuning pin boring setup.
Tim

Ditto! I'm sure most of us when benefit a lot from Machinist training. Bill Spurlock was a machinist before he became a piano technician.

It is very well done and installed.

at last the parts seem to fit.

usual center to jack distance is 99 mm

jack height seem to fit (usually 49 mm)

I would have wait to have the strings mounted to glue the hammers, because strike line depends of them, you may have to change some part and glue at a differnt dimension on the shank, if it is better for tone

The hammers and shanks were assembled in Larry Buck's shop on the same model Kimball. For some reason they decided not to continue with the rebuild.

I ended up with the piano, I put the action in my shop and the rest of the piano in another basement.

Well a few months later the basement flooded with 20" of water.
For some reason after a day and a half sitting in water the piano had some major veneer and glue-joint problems.
So I had to put it asleep.

I held the hammers side by side with the ones I pulled out of this Kimball and as far as I could see they are a perfect match.

We have a machinist in our chapter. We get all kinds of cool stuff he designs and builds.

I would note that the kimball wipp, by using the silk cords eliminates the friction butterfly springs create in the groove in the balancier. I don't know if this compensates for the compond loading of a butterfly spring in repetition, but I've never found a kimball style wipp bound up with a big blob of graphite grease either.

Yes Craig I appreciate your reply. My original questions was "Ar Steinway whippens beter than Kimball whippens"
My thought are that Steinway whippens cost about twice as much as Kimball whippens doesn't this apply with you get what you pay for.
Also I wanted to make this action feel more like the higher end pianos feel.
One of the reasons I'm attempting to change this action is that I had the unbelievable opportunity to play $50,000 to $150,000 pianos and I'm on a quest to get there.
I hate to admit it but I have long way to go.

It may be a long road, but you seem to be digging in with some determination.
The one advantage that the Steinway wipp may offer is the room to move the capstan closer to the jack. Action work is essentially advanced teeter-totter theory. How do we lift the big kid with the little kid? Moving the capstan toward the balance rail is essentially like moving the big kid closer to the fulcrum. The little kid gains an advantage. This also means that the capstan is pressin farther out on the wippen body, it lengthens that lever and gives an advantage to the key that is trying to lift it. Two advantages from one change.
I mention this because you are working on a very short piano. In the quest to make a small piano, many makers resort to taking an inch or two off of the length of the keys, without making any changes to the action stack. This robs the key of its leverage against the action. This in turn gives a heavy touch, to be lessened by the addition of leads, which in turn increases the action's inertia. Most high end pianos avoid this.
You might also want to compare the weight of your hammers with the original. That one gram at the hammer equals 5, 6, or 7 grams at the key rule can get out of controll fast.

P.S. I have a beautiful set of fancy Kranich legs if you want them