Hi Philip:
My experience with Chinese flanges is that the felt is quite susceptible to swelling when there's moisture. Then, the wood is quite spongy, so it too changes with humidity. The ones you reamed are likely to still have problems unless you pinned them on the loose side. You might try rebushing some just to see what happens. I'd make sure to size them afterwards with alcohol/water or whatever to make the fibers in the bushing cloth more densely packed and solid. If you can get better quality flanges, that's good. But then you'll have some issues with alignment/traveling afterwards.
Good luck,
Paul McCloud
Philip Jamison
A customer has a Chinese Christofori console. It has all kinds off loose/tight hammer flanges. I reamed the tight ones last year and got it playing, but now more are stuck with some pins working out of the flanges. I plan to offer to re-bush all the flanges. Does that seem the best solution, or is there some design flaw I should know? I guess the other option is to replace them with better-quality parts.
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Philip Jamison
Philip Jamison Pianos
WEST CHESTER PA
610-696-8449
Original Message------
A customer has a Chinese Christofori console. It has all kinds off loose/tight hammer flanges. I reamed the tight ones last year and got it playing, but now more are stuck with some pins working out of the flanges. I plan to offer to re-bush all the flanges. Does that seem the best solution, or is there some design flaw I should know? I guess the other option is to replace them with better-quality parts.
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Philip Jamison
Philip Jamison Pianos
WEST CHESTER PA
610-696-8449
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