CAUT

  • 1.  Heated key cauls

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 10-25-2024 16:02

    I purchased a set of brass key cauls from Pianotek that fit into a soldering iron, some time ago. I now want to use it on a set of Yamaha keys that I just rebushed, but alas, there is no 0.125" caul in the set. 0.088 and 0.129, but not 0.125. Go figure. Does anyone have a suggestion of where to get one. Schaff sells the set, but it doesn't include .125 which is what Yamaha used in the front rail of this piano. TIA.



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    Dave Conte, RPT

    Piano Technician in Residence
    The University of Tennessee
    College of Music
    Knoxville TN
    (817) 307-5656
    Owner: Rocky Top Piano
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  • 2.  RE: Heated key cauls

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 10-25-2024 20:25
    .129 is made specifically for .125 front rail pins. You need to iron the bushings a little wider than the pin, just like you need to ream a balance hole larger than the pin (but by only .001 - .002"). 

    Roger Jolly is the one who got Pianotek to make those parallel sided cauls, as a more precise alternative to their set of five tapered cauls. He told me he asked them to make the ones for the front rail .004" larger than the pins, with the ones for the balance bushings .001 - .002" larger than the pins.

    Experience over decades has proved to me that Roger was right.
    Regards,
    Fred Sturm
    http://fredsturm.net
    www.artoftuning.com
    "One's real life is so often the life that one does not lead" (Oscar Wilde)




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