Pianotech

  • 1.  Vertical Damper Spoons

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 05-06-2022 11:20
    In updating an 1879 3/4-plate 48" Stwy vertical, I have to convert the wippen-damperlever contact from wooden "spoon" (fixed flange) & setscrew in the damper lever, to the modern metal spoon. I have 50  such spoons, leftover from when supply houses had them, and need another ~25. Unfortunately, no one (Pianotek, Schaff, Forte Piano Supply, Renner, Stwy) carries them. I thought I might make do with the spoon for the grand rep's jack-adjust button. Unfortunately, the latter is flat, as opposed to an actual "spoon" curve, and unlike the jack-adjust spoon, the vertical damper spoon is moving (as with its damper lever).



    Any idea about a back-channel to a piano factory, as a source? I'm going to do the conversion with the 50 I have (from the bass on up, where most of the wire spending is done). Maybe, I can assume that the "flat" spoons won't dig as much into the damper lever felt if I put a slight bend in the spoon so that its top edge is no longer the first to hit the felt.

    But I'd love to find some real upright damper spoons.

    ------------------------------
    William Ballard RPT
    WBPS
    Saxtons River VT
    802-869-9107

    "Our lives contain a thousand springs
    and dies if one be gone
    Strange that a harp of a thousand strings
    should keep in tune so long."
    ...........Dr. Watts, "The Continental Harmony,1774
    +++++++++++++++++++++
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Vertical Damper Spoons

    Posted 05-06-2022 14:09
    Bend the flat section of the jack rest. Salvage damper spoons from a junk upright action.

    ------------------------------
    Regards,

    Jon Page
    mailto:jonpage@comcast.net
    http://www.pianocapecod.com
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  • 3.  RE: Vertical Damper Spoons

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 05-06-2022 19:26
    Dang, I just demolished two of them this Fall: an ornate I&P, and a no-name ("Milton", who knows …) 48"-er from the '30. But both of those had damper flanges offset from the butt flanges: straight spoons to be bent to make the offset. I need one from a double-flange action, a Stwy or a Baltimore Knabe.

    Some factory, somewhere, is still making them. Or some tuner, somewhere, is ready to get rid of theirs. It's been decades since installing jack adjusting spoons on 19th- century Stwy reps was a regular piece of work.

    ------------------------------
    William Ballard RPT
    WBPS
    Saxtons River VT
    802-869-9107

    "Our lives contain a thousand springs
    and dies if one be gone
    Strange that a harp of a thousand strings
    should keep in tune so long."
    ...........Dr. Watts, "The Continental Harmony,1774
    +++++++++++++++++++++
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: Vertical Damper Spoons

    Posted 05-07-2022 06:55
    I have a Cable console action that is going out. I'd be glad to measure the spoons to see if they might work.

    John Formsma <caret></caret>

    Sent from ProtonMail for iOS





  • 5.  RE: Vertical Damper Spoons

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 05-07-2022 08:27
    Thanks for the offer, John. They are 1-3/8" tall, with a 9/32" fluted stem, and are an exact match for the grand rep jack-adjust spoon except for the actual "spoon", not flat but curved. I've got plenty of straight-stem spoons which block the wippen flange screw. The "double-dogleg" is required when there is no offset between the damper flange mounting and that of the butts/wippens.

    Schaff used to offer their connections to the piano industry for odd parts not called-for enough to get in their catalog. But that was back when this country had a piano industry. Probably these would have to come special order for EU, something that Jurgen or Melanie Brooks could swing.

    ------------------------------
    William Ballard RPT
    WBPS
    Saxtons River VT
    802-869-9107

    "Our lives contain a thousand springs
    and dies if one be gone
    Strange that a harp of a thousand strings
    should keep in tune so long."
    ...........Dr. Watts, "The Continental Harmony,1774
    +++++++++++++++++++++
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: Vertical Damper Spoons

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 05-07-2022 12:49
    Tokiwa still makes action parts for that era Steinway uprights.

    Or maybe drill a small round bottom hole in something hard and peen the flat jack spoon into it ( use a round-ended drift?)

    Joe Wiencek
    NYC