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They are not bonding it at all. The insides of the holes are threaded and the bushing is held in place by mechanical pressure and a friction fit.

A bit of care is required to ream and repin but it does seem to work well.

Del

Interesting (although reasonable given that we all share the same atmosphere), considering that Canada is a net oil exporter.

If I may make an obvious point, filled nylon of one sort or another has been available for a few decades. It is only lack of vision that has prevented its use in pianos. One might be able to guess at the filler by the color of the nylon. If it is white or some light color, the filler is probably glass fibers. If the nylon is gray/black, the filler may well be molybdenum disulfide. Such moly-filled nylon has been sold under the brand name of Nylatron for years.

Carbon-fiber tubing has also been available for quite a while. Carbon-fiber arrow shafting is easily bought at a decent price--I don't recall what diameters it's available in, however. People have been claiming for years that the bendiness of wooden shanks is an important component of tone. The stiff carbon-fiber shanks from M&H may well prove them wrong. I wouldn't be surprised.

"The Canadian government is try to slow down the use of fossil fuel. Like the current prices have not done that yet."

If you ask me,
iIt is in the nature of every democracy to rise taxes where there is least opposition from the population.

The accurately concerted hype about the environment, particularly about the co2 emissions, has allowed democratically elected governments to impose "environmentally concerned" new taxes almost everywhere, in form of higher excise duty, road tax etc. (so for example in Germany, in Italy, in the UK, in Ireland) with initially weak opposition. "Unbelievable, you can raise new taxes, feel good and increase your popularity at the same time!" they must have thought, thinking it Christmas and New Year together.

It works only to a certain point.

Here in Great Britain our new - and possibly soon old - Prime Minister started with a new take-off tax on flights which, besides angering a lot of international partners, raised more than a few eyebrows in those who discovered that it is much more comfortable to criticise other people's SUVs than to have to pay extra when you fly to Spain; then an increase in road tax came, and this too was able to pass under the great environmental umbrella; but then a second road tax increase was announced, this time retroactive and thus applicable also to already bought vehicles, and Mssrs. Brown and Darling are now wishing they had never done it; and then an additional 2p /liter tax on fuel had to be postponed until october, and October nears and that's another embarrassment coming, the cry being very loud to cancel it altogether; and then a new "show room tax" of up to GBP 950 per car was announced for next fiscal year, and I would not want to be the minister having to defend it when the time comes to really introduce it; moreover, a new aeroplane-based environmental tax was announced, which according to the americans et alios is in obvious breach of international treaties about flight taxation and will be very funny to watch at; and then again a well known London Mayor, who had announced a new and extremely punitive congestion charge of up to GBP 25 a day (yes!!) for 20% of the vehicles around, lost his job as a consequence, definitely letting all possible alarm bells go up in MP land...... miracle of miracles, even our oh so green Conservative leader, once so very proud about the horrible windmill he insisted in having installed on his roof to make his zeal visible to everyone within a mile, has become - how funny is that - remarkably silent on the subject.

If you ask me, it will go this way in all other western democracies: the "environmental taxes" will be saluted in a first time, grudgingly accepted in a second and then gradually opposed and blatantly refused in a third one.

You are, of course, quite right; filled nylon has been around for decades. We used it in the early 1990s to mold our vertical action jacks. To be more specific, however, these parts are closer to a true black, not the gray/black typical of moly-filled nylon. I’d have to go to Bruce Clark to pin down precisely what material is being used but my memory (fallible though it may be) tells me it is an off-the-shelf material. So, yes, it has been only the lack of vision that has prevented this material—or something similar to it—from being used to make piano action parts. Well, that, and the strong opposition from the piano sales community.

The carbon-fiber tubing used in the hammershanks has an outside diameter of just less than 4 mm (3.94 mm to be precise) and a wall thickness of 0.75 mm. Its small diameter looks a little unusual to those of us more accustomed to viewing wood shanks, but they are quite stiff.

ddf

Del, not to belabor the glue thing, but what sort of glue are you using to attach the hammers to the composite shanks? Or..is there another method of attachment?

Just to further Del's post, the new action from M&H also features a "universal" wippen.

For laypeople, each piano needs a wippen that transfers our energy from the key stroke to the hammer throw. Because the "connectors" (capstan on the key and the knuckle on the hammer shank) could be placed in very different places from maker to maker, we must always choose a wippen that allows an effective transfer of energy.

Sometimes a rebuilder must alter the capstan placement or the knuckle size and placement to achieve the best geometry for a given piano.

This new wippen will offer many more choices to the rebuilder as he can change the important placement points on the wippen - whereas wooden wippens must be ordered to be "as close as possible" on rarer instruments. This is an exciting possibility to rebuilders.

I hope that helps,

I’ve not reached that stage as yet. Soon. I’m told regular pvc adhesives work well so I’m going to first try my normal shop glue which is called MP II. It’s an industrial “aliphatic resin” adhesive similar to Titebond II but without the colorants and a few other additives which make Titebond more suitable for hardware store sales.

ddf

Right. There are several different capstan block heights available and these can be installed at 1.5 mm increments over a fairly wide range—cool.

I don’t yet know if hammershanks with alternate knuckle placement will be available.

ddf

It'll be interesting to see if these parts become part an M&H strategy re foreign sourcing.

Maybe the company could also try a steel plate a la Del.

Del, if I may ask, who manufactures MP II?

I don’t know who manufactures it. We purchase it from CP Adhesives:
http://www.cpadhesives.com/

And “MP II” was a typo; it should have been “MPA II.”

CP Adhesives is not actually a manufacturer. They repackage a variety of adhesives normally available only to very large users into quantities normal mortals can afford to purchase. Hence we are able to purchase MPA II in 5–gallon quantities. (I just checked their website and have discovered that “MPA II” is now packaged as CP-0201 and can be ordered online. You can still purchase it as MPA II if you call the company directly but it’s the same stuff.)

Another adhesive I’ve considered using for gluing hammers to these graphite tubes is their EVA; CP–0401. This is an ethylene vinyl acetate emulsion that is supposed to be good for bonding porous materials (wood) to non-porous materials (the graphite tube). We’ll see.

We have also used their urea and resorcinol adhesives. If you’re into pressing grand piano rims their CP-0503 is a good choice. It’s a powdered urea resin adhesive with a very long open time. It dries/cures hard and there is no springback.

If you are interested in their various adhesives you might want to download their Better Gluing Guide. It’s available as a PDF file download from their website. All of the adhesives I’ve purchased from this company have been of excellent quality.

ddf

One other issue on the shanks is the later process that would typically involve slightly bending or rotating the shank for final spacing and alignment to strings. Still required for WNG shanks.
I have heard of a failure of a shank when attempting the rotating but bending seemed to work ok without weakening it. - using heat -
So the hammer hanging process appears to require more precision at glue up.

THe factory was nice enough to supply what they use for my first application. Goes by the name of "Assembly 65". Probably similar to what Del is planning on using. CA also works but I'm not convince of the long term reliability.

In regard to what Gene mentioned about using heat to warp the shanks. To clarify, the shanks will twist (warp) nicely from side to side with a bit of direct heating. You can remove the heat from the shank with your fingers after twisting to freeze the position. Otherwise it will go back a little toward the original position. If the shanks is bent fore and aft while heated it will fail fairly readily.

I was able to remove glued on hammers after heating the "Assembling 65" with the cafreful application of heat. A hot plate with fine sand to immerse the joint in distributes the heat evenly.

I was working at the Dutch pianobuilding company Rippen in the 60-ties. They developped the Lindner model, and founded a new factory in Ireland for it. They used a lot of plastic in those lightweight piano, (mechanism and keyboard) but did forget to apply for patents. So Nippon_Gakki (the mother of Yamaha) did do so, after buying a Lindner from a Japanese reseller.
At the moment I'm working at a book on the Rippen/Lindner history. And just today I did happen to be involved with those patents- discussions.
The Rippen/Lindner-guys were a little bit too early, but no doubt, they did have clever ideas.

Couldn't you play these pianos underwater?

I'm not a rebuilder, but I took Bruce Clark's class on the composite action parts at the University of Western Ontario's seminar in London, Ontario last month. It was really interesting. Yes, the action parts are nylon/glass composite and the hammer shanks are off-the-shelf carbon tubing. He cautioned against heating with an open flame! But said heat gun is ok.

He also said that in the future MH pianos may be offered with composite actions as an option but they're not planning wholesale replacement of the traditional action in their pianos anytime soon.

Bruce also mentioned that some performers (I think he said maybe a third) who've tried the composite action found a difference in playing and said they'd need to adjust to it; my sense was that it might be hard to control for some players. But overall most liked it.

I am considering buying a Mason & Hamlin piano with the Wessell, Nickel & Gross composite action installed. I would be interested in finding out about how all the pianos rebuilt using these parts turned out, if there were any issues, and long term expectations.

Thanks

The action parts are supposed to be first rate. Ask Del Fandrich about them since I know that he's used them before.

Hi there:

I'm just finishing a Mason A with the composite parts. The action plays great and the regulation was smooth and straight forward. I know some have been used on some Yamahas at the Royal conservatory in Toronto where they will take a huge beating. There's a lot of advantages to it and they are good. There is no long term experience with them, but practically speaking, I expect them to last exceptionally well, or else I wouldn't have used them. They have been out there for a while under some demanding conditions and so far, all is well.

I would say, go for it.

Steve