Pianotech

If you have ever wished to be able to regulate a grand action on the bench where you could easily do the work without crouching down, kneeling, sitting on pillows, etc., peering into a dark action cavity..  

Yes, of course, we would like to be able to do that.  And yes, we can.  Just measure the key height, then shim up the action frame to duplicate it.  But, usually there's some fine tuning to be done in the piano afterwards.  We might call this a "bench regulation", a sort of rough regulation to get in the ballpark.

What if there was a jig that you could build that would exactly duplicate the bedding of the keyframe on your workbench?  If you have the budget, the Grandworks (tm) station does an excellent job, and a lot more.  For the amount of regulation work that I do, that excellent system is out of my financial range.

I have a couple of regulation jobs at hand, which mostly I don't usually do.  I have always thought there must be a way to duplicate a piano keybed so that I could put the action on top of my workbench, and I could rely upon it to do all the rest of the regulation there instead of the action cavity.  Getting old is still a drag, especially if I have to do a regulation in a grand piano.  Getting up and down gets old fast.  I'd much rather do it at my shop where I have all the supplies and tools.

I came up with a jig to duplicate the most important keybed elevation locations. After adjusting the jig in the action cavity, you simply remove the jig to the bench and place the action on top of the jig. The keyframe sits exactly in the same position as in the piano, exactly as you bedded it.  You can do all the other regulation steps on the bench, and slide it into the action cavity with little to no additional adjustment necessary.

I have a prototype which works perfectly.  I'm asking here if there is some interest in such a jig, and if so, I could provide details of what I made, and why it works.  I don't want to get involved making anything for sale, but I thought that if I put the idea out, maybe someone would be interested to make one of their own, perhaps with improvements and suggestions to make it better, easier to make, etc.  The biggest expense is a sheet of plexiglass, roughly the same size as an action key frame, 51" long and 24" wide, 1/4" thick.  My local plastics store charged me about $175 for it.  With some scrounging, you might be able to source it for less, or you can cut your own piece to size.  Making the jig requires drilling holes in the plexiglass and tapping them, which is very easy with a special combo bit that cost less than $10.

If you are interested, please send me a PM, and I'll send more information and details.  As I said, I'd like to see this project as a group collaboration.  Once you understand how it works, you may have your own ideas how it could be made and used.

Let me know your comments.

Paul McCloud, RPT