Pianotech

Hello fellow members,

While tuning a relatively new Kawai GL-10 baby grand this morning at a church, I noticed rattling sounds from the dampers throughout the keyboard.

I pulled the action and noticed it was largely made of composite materials. I then inspected the damper under-lever and it was all plastic (see attached photo).

Turns out the rattling is the lead weights which have become loose. Has anyone attempted to remedy this type of situation? My guess is to apply epoxy

to each one to secure it into place. They will not fall out due to how they were installed but they will continue to make noise unless something is done.

Thanks!

Cary Thrift Jr.

You might be able to put drops of medium CA glue on each damper lever and let it drip down to the leads.  

Hello fellow members,

While tuning a relatively new Kawai GL-10 baby grand this morning at a church, I noticed rattling sounds from the dampers throughout the keyboard.

I pulled the action and noticed it was largely made of composite materials. I then inspected the damper under-lever and it was all plastic (see attached photo).

Turns out the rattling is the lead weights which have become loose. Has anyone attempted to remedy this type of situation? My guess is to apply epoxy

to each one to secure it into place. They will not fall out due to how they were installed but they will continue to make noise unless something is done.

Thanks!

Cary Thrift Jr.

You can apply glue to the leads, but I usually try squeezing them from both sides first. That usually takes care of it.

Alan 

You might be able to put drops of medium CA glue on each damper lever and let it drip down to the leads.  

Hello fellow members,

While tuning a relatively new Kawai GL-10 baby grand this morning at a church, I noticed rattling sounds from the dampers throughout the keyboard.

I pulled the action and noticed it was largely made of composite materials. I then inspected the damper under-lever and it was all plastic (see attached photo).

Turns out the rattling is the lead weights which have become loose. Has anyone attempted to remedy this type of situation? My guess is to apply epoxy

to each one to secure it into place. They will not fall out due to how they were installed but they will continue to make noise unless something is done.

Thanks!

Cary Thrift Jr.

Modify pliers and squeeze.

You can apply glue to the leads, but I usually try squeezing them from both sides first. That usually takes care of it.

Alan 

You might be able to put drops of medium CA glue on each damper lever and let it drip down to the leads.  

Hello fellow members,

While tuning a relatively new Kawai GL-10 baby grand this morning at a church, I noticed rattling sounds from the dampers throughout the keyboard.

I pulled the action and noticed it was largely made of composite materials. I then inspected the damper under-lever and it was all plastic (see attached photo).

Turns out the rattling is the lead weights which have become loose. Has anyone attempted to remedy this type of situation? My guess is to apply epoxy

to each one to secure it into place. They will not fall out due to how they were installed but they will continue to make noise unless something is done.

Thanks!

Cary Thrift Jr.

Hello fellow members,

While tuning a relatively new Kawai GL-10 baby grand this morning at a church, I noticed rattling sounds from the dampers throughout the keyboard.

I pulled the action and noticed it was largely made of composite materials. I then inspected the damper under-lever and it was all plastic (see attached photo).

Turns out the rattling is the lead weights which have become loose. Has anyone attempted to remedy this type of situation? My guess is to apply epoxy

to each one to secure it into place. They will not fall out due to how they were installed but they will continue to make noise unless something is done.

Thanks!

Cary Thrift Jr.

Hello fellow members,

While tuning a relatively new Kawai GL-10 baby grand this morning at a church, I noticed rattling sounds from the dampers throughout the keyboard.

I pulled the action and noticed it was largely made of composite materials. I then inspected the damper under-lever and it was all plastic (see attached photo).

Turns out the rattling is the lead weights which have become loose. Has anyone attempted to remedy this type of situation? My guess is to apply epoxy

to each one to secure it into place. They will not fall out due to how they were installed but they will continue to make noise unless something is done.

Thanks!

Cary Thrift Jr.

Hello fellow members,

While tuning a relatively new Kawai GL-10 baby grand this morning at a church, I noticed rattling sounds from the dampers throughout the keyboard.

I pulled the action and noticed it was largely made of composite materials. I then inspected the damper under-lever and it was all plastic (see attached photo).

Turns out the rattling is the lead weights which have become loose. Has anyone attempted to remedy this type of situation? My guess is to apply epoxy

to each one to secure it into place. They will not fall out due to how they were installed but they will continue to make noise unless something is done.

Thanks!

Cary Thrift Jr.

Hello fellow members,

While tuning a relatively new Kawai GL-10 baby grand this morning at a church, I noticed rattling sounds from the dampers throughout the keyboard.

I pulled the action and noticed it was largely made of composite materials. I then inspected the damper under-lever and it was all plastic (see attached photo).

Turns out the rattling is the lead weights which have become loose. Has anyone attempted to remedy this type of situation? My guess is to apply epoxy

to each one to secure it into place. They will not fall out due to how they were installed but they will continue to make noise unless something is done.

Thanks!

Cary Thrift Jr.

Good morning Cary,

it's great to see you on the forum. The pliers that have been mentioned are outside retaining ring pliers that you can pick up from Amazon, Harbor freight, etc. Make sure you find a fit with offset pins that can be used as pincers. I had to grind a flat on the interchangeable pins for my foot so that I could turn them in as shown in the picture below. By using the tool this way, you can reach in, without removing the underlever, and swage the lead.

of course if this is a new one, be sure to contact Kawaii about warranty work first. 

feel free to give me a call if this needs more explanation.

Hello fellow members,

While tuning a relatively new Kawai GL-10 baby grand this morning at a church, I noticed rattling sounds from the dampers throughout the keyboard.

I pulled the action and noticed it was largely made of composite materials. I then inspected the damper under-lever and it was all plastic (see attached photo).

Turns out the rattling is the lead weights which have become loose. Has anyone attempted to remedy this type of situation? My guess is to apply epoxy

to each one to secure it into place. They will not fall out due to how they were installed but they will continue to make noise unless something is done.

Thanks!

Cary Thrift Jr.

Good morning Cary,

it's great to see you on the forum. The pliers that have been mentioned are outside retaining ring pliers that you can pick up from Amazon, Harbor freight, etc. Make sure you find a fit with offset pins that can be used as pincers. I had to grind a flat on the interchangeable pins for my foot so that I could turn them in as shown in the picture below. By using the tool this way, you can reach in, without removing the underlever, and swage the lead.

of course if this is a new one, be sure to contact Kawaii about warranty work first. 

feel free to give me a call if this needs more explanation.

Hello fellow members,

While tuning a relatively new Kawai GL-10 baby grand this morning at a church, I noticed rattling sounds from the dampers throughout the keyboard.

I pulled the action and noticed it was largely made of composite materials. I then inspected the damper under-lever and it was all plastic (see attached photo).

Turns out the rattling is the lead weights which have become loose. Has anyone attempted to remedy this type of situation? My guess is to apply epoxy

to each one to secure it into place. They will not fall out due to how they were installed but they will continue to make noise unless something is done.

Thanks!

Cary Thrift Jr.

HI Susan,

Great thoughts. I haven't experimented before on this so I thought I would grab a few minutes in the shop this morning to try it out. 

Here's what I learned (some of which surprised me) in case anyone doesn't want to watch to the video:

• It takes more squeezing than I expected with the little swaging pliers to get effect. This showed me that there's a lot of control available. This part was done on an older wooden part to look for splitting. David Stanwood taught us in touch design class to intentionally split a few junk pieces to learn how much pressure that takes when swaging with an arbor press.
• CA does not adhere well to Kawai plastic parts (I've tried CA and PVC-E in the past so I'll probably go back to something like PVC-E if I use that again)
• CA does not adhere well to lead - I didn't expect to adhere well but it surprised me at first then popped off.

This is part of what I love about this forum - we learn and find new things!

Everyone stay safe and well out there.

AG

Good morning Cary,

it's great to see you on the forum. The pliers that have been mentioned are outside retaining ring pliers that you can pick up from Amazon, Harbor freight, etc. Make sure you find a fit with offset pins that can be used as pincers. I had to grind a flat on the interchangeable pins for my foot so that I could turn them in as shown in the picture below. By using the tool this way, you can reach in, without removing the underlever, and swage the lead.

of course if this is a new one, be sure to contact Kawaii about warranty work first. 

feel free to give me a call if this needs more explanation.

Hello fellow members,

While tuning a relatively new Kawai GL-10 baby grand this morning at a church, I noticed rattling sounds from the dampers throughout the keyboard.

I pulled the action and noticed it was largely made of composite materials. I then inspected the damper under-lever and it was all plastic (see attached photo).

Turns out the rattling is the lead weights which have become loose. Has anyone attempted to remedy this type of situation? My guess is to apply epoxy

to each one to secure it into place. They will not fall out due to how they were installed but they will continue to make noise unless something is done.

Thanks!

Cary Thrift Jr.

HI Susan,

Great thoughts. I haven't experimented before on this so I thought I would grab a few minutes in the shop this morning to try it out. 

Here's what I learned (some of which surprised me) in case anyone doesn't want to watch to the video:

• It takes more squeezing than I expected with the little swaging pliers to get effect. This showed me that there's a lot of control available. This part was done on an older wooden part to look for splitting. David Stanwood taught us in touch design class to intentionally split a few junk pieces to learn how much pressure that takes when swaging with an arbor press.
• CA does not adhere well to Kawai plastic parts (I've tried CA and PVC-E in the past so I'll probably go back to something like PVC-E if I use that again)
• CA does not adhere well to lead - I didn't expect to adhere well but it surprised me at first then popped off.

This is part of what I love about this forum - we learn and find new things!

Everyone stay safe and well out there.

AG

Good morning Cary,

it's great to see you on the forum. The pliers that have been mentioned are outside retaining ring pliers that you can pick up from Amazon, Harbor freight, etc. Make sure you find a fit with offset pins that can be used as pincers. I had to grind a flat on the interchangeable pins for my foot so that I could turn them in as shown in the picture below. By using the tool this way, you can reach in, without removing the underlever, and swage the lead.

of course if this is a new one, be sure to contact Kawaii about warranty work first. 

feel free to give me a call if this needs more explanation.

Hello fellow members,

While tuning a relatively new Kawai GL-10 baby grand this morning at a church, I noticed rattling sounds from the dampers throughout the keyboard.

I pulled the action and noticed it was largely made of composite materials. I then inspected the damper under-lever and it was all plastic (see attached photo).

Turns out the rattling is the lead weights which have become loose. Has anyone attempted to remedy this type of situation? My guess is to apply epoxy

to each one to secure it into place. They will not fall out due to how they were installed but they will continue to make noise unless something is done.

Thanks!

Cary Thrift Jr.