I am looking for a trapwork part for a 69 Mason & Hamlin Model A. It's the part of the assembly which works the damper pedal. It looks to be made of cast iron. It has the number 65932 stamped into it, which could be a part number. Someone answering email at Mason & Hamlin said they didn't have that part available. Before I take the piece to a local welder for evaluation I thought I would ask here in case one of you can advise me where I might find a replacement. I will attempt to link an image here. Thanks! [img]https://plus.google.com/photos/112455459...CKykutynzdK-tgE[/img]

I was thinking about this, and was wondering whether you tried Schaff. The supplies of Aeolian American were bought by APSCO, which in turn was bought by Schaff.

Otherwise, I would try a blacksmith. It might be easier to forge a new one, rather than repair the old one. It would definitely be stronger.

Thats a part designed for a reproducer, so I doubt that it is available.
Take it to a smith. The break looks clean. The repair should be easily strong enough. That type of damage generally happens during a move.

Not an often purchased part.

The grand damper lever from APSCO now sold by Schaff (part#1074)does not have the large tab in the middle of the length.

Pot metal such as these levers or pedal sets can be brazed successfully today. That would be the cheapest route.

Mason & Hamlin was not making reproducers in 1969. I do not think that shift levers were ever made of pot metal. Schaff may have some things which are not in the catalog, and in any case, it does no harm to ask.

The material will be 30K gray iron. It would have been cast at either the Wickham or OS Kelly foundry of the same iron used in the plate.

ddf

I recently had an una corda trap lever welded, and it's probably stronger now than it was before. I think that would be far cheaper. My guess is $40-$50.

Here in Oakland we have The Crucible, where I bet one could get a student to forge one cheap.

No they weren't. But many design aspects of the reproducer era continued on in a vestigial fashion. Primary example: the beam configuration. The single beam down the center of the case with branching posts was an adaptation to make room for the player motor and such. This constituted a sacrifice of radial structure. We saw the first Haverill Mason going down the line, and I was dismayed to see that the beams were for a player. This meant that Mason had pulled out the plans for the last produced piano rather than going back further to a more pure design.

In any case, that is not what they used for reproducers. I tuned an ex-Ampico Mason & Hamlin RT today, and the shift lever is much different.

I don't think that that is the shift lever. Didn't he say it was part of the damper system?

I had to make a una corda lever for an older Kawai that was in a church. The cast iron original had snapped and no replacement was available. The only piece that remained was half a lever. I used pinblock material and copied the half that I had and sculpted the rest to facilitate the pedal rod action. I coated it several times with epoxy to give it additional strength. That was about 5 years ago and the piano is still the primary instrument every sunday.

Correct. The tab on the length drives the pitman vertically.

The damper pedal trap work on the RT is even less like that.

Oops, my mistake. I'll save this for another thread.

Upon reflection , I must concede.
BDB is correct.