Pianotech

Just when you think you've done it all - a new opportunity presents itself! Early 90s Young Chang grand with expanding action brackets. The brackets have expanded to the point where the action will not come out of the action cavity. It's not that the drop screws are digging into the pinblock, but rather that the brackets have expanded horizontally to the keybed and forced the hammer rest rail up against the hammer tails in the low bass. That prevents the bass hammers from being depressed upon trying to extract the action from the cavity - the bass hammers hit the pinblock, preventing the action from being removed.

Or, I should say the bass hammers hit the pinblock until yesterday at about 1:30 PM! Nothing a sledge hammer wouldn't fix! I decided that perhaps a good way to get the action out would be to break the bass-most action bracket, hoping that would let the action geometry reset to a point where the action could be removed. Worked like a charm!

I think I could have wacked the action bracket with a keystick and it would have broke easily - there was very little resistance. In the second video, before you start it, note that the hammer rail bends upward toward the bass end. Watch how, as I break the rest of the bracket, the bass end of the hammer rail pops downward, back to a straight rail.

Very good fun. I recommend it to all!!!  Enjoy the videos!

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Terry Farrell
Farrell Piano Service, Inc.
Brandon, Florida
terry@farrellpiano.com
813-684-3505
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Somewhat of a generalization, but safe to say when we come upon these expanding action brackets at this time in their history, the chances of having to obliterate 1 if not all of the brackets in order to remove it from the action cavity seems high. 


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-Phil Bondi
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-29-2018 06:51
From: Terrence Farrell
Subject: Percussive Maintenance/Repair

Just when you think you've done it all - a new opportunity presents itself! Early 90s Young Chang grand with expanding action brackets. The brackets have expanded to the point where the action will not come out of the action cavity. It's not that the drop screws are digging into the pinblock, but rather that the brackets have expanded horizontally to the keybed and forced the hammer rest rail up against the hammer tails in the low bass. That prevents the bass hammers from being depressed upon trying to extract the action from the cavity - the bass hammers hit the pinblock, preventing the action from being removed.

Or, I should say the bass hammers hit the pinblock until yesterday at about 1:30 PM! Nothing a sledge hammer wouldn't fix! I decided that perhaps a good way to get the action out would be to break the bass-most action bracket, hoping that would let the action geometry reset to a point where the action could be removed. Worked like a charm!

I think I could have wacked the action bracket with a keystick and it would have broke easily - there was very little resistance. In the second video, before you start it, note that the hammer rail bends upward toward the bass end. Watch how, as I break the rest of the bracket, the bass end of the hammer rail pops downward, back to a straight rail.

Very good fun. I recommend it to all!!!  Enjoy the videos!

------------------------------
Terry Farrell
Farrell Piano Service, Inc.
Brandon, Florida
terry@farrellpiano.com
813-684-3505
------------------------------

I sure don't understand what is going on with these things. In this particular case, it was only the bass end bracket that had expanded a large amount. The treble end bracket didn't look expanded, but it did have some cracking. The middle two brackets appeared unaffected by the syndrome. Probably from different lots or something......

I don't see that my first video went through - perhaps there is a size limit to the attachments here. I posted it below. Breaking the bracket at first was like pushing a knife through butter - that easy to break.

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Terry Farrell
Farrell Piano Service, Inc.
Brandon, Florida
terry@farrellpiano.com
813-684-3505
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-29-2018 07:32
From: Phil Bondi
Subject: Percussive Maintenance/Repair

Somewhat of a generalization, but safe to say when we come upon these expanding action brackets at this time in their history, the chances of having to obliterate 1 if not all of the brackets in order to remove it from the action cavity seems high.


------------------------------
-Phil Bondi

Original Message:
Sent: 03-29-2018 06:51
From: Terrence Farrell
Subject: Percussive Maintenance/Repair

Just when you think you've done it all - a new opportunity presents itself! Early 90s Young Chang grand with expanding action brackets. The brackets have expanded to the point where the action will not come out of the action cavity. It's not that the drop screws are digging into the pinblock, but rather that the brackets have expanded horizontally to the keybed and forced the hammer rest rail up against the hammer tails in the low bass. That prevents the bass hammers from being depressed upon trying to extract the action from the cavity - the bass hammers hit the pinblock, preventing the action from being removed.

Or, I should say the bass hammers hit the pinblock until yesterday at about 1:30 PM! Nothing a sledge hammer wouldn't fix! I decided that perhaps a good way to get the action out would be to break the bass-most action bracket, hoping that would let the action geometry reset to a point where the action could be removed. Worked like a charm!

I think I could have wacked the action bracket with a keystick and it would have broke easily - there was very little resistance. In the second video, before you start it, note that the hammer rail bends upward toward the bass end. Watch how, as I break the rest of the bracket, the bass end of the hammer rail pops downward, back to a straight rail.

Very good fun. I recommend it to all!!!  Enjoy the videos!

------------------------------
Terry Farrell
Farrell Piano Service, Inc.
Brandon, Florida
terry@farrellpiano.com
813-684-3505
------------------------------