Restoration of a player piano that
is also an orchestrian for the Dahl family of McKinney Texas
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99) 
100) 
101) 
99-100) Now the action is to be rebuilt. The Baldwin style of player mechanism
is very hard on the connecting arms that run between the keys and the whippens. (the
parts that look like long square sticks) As a result, the hinge pins on the lower
portion of these parts were all loose. Therefore, they were completely torn apart
and repined. This work was not in the original plan but it had to be done in order
for the action to give reliable service. The last thing we want is to have the piano
fully restored and then end up with problems.
101) This action is showing signs that it has been subjected to a lot of moisture.
Many of the jacks have come unglued. The ones that are still solidly glued in
place are questionable to me since so many of the others were not. Therefore, all
the jacks that could be snapped from their glue joints were removed. They were
cleaned up and glued back into place with hot hide glue. Then all the friction
surfaces of the jacks were lubricated. In addition to the jack glue joints failing,
the back check felts and sticker felts had all come unglued as well. These were all
pulled off and reglued. The damper felts on this piano had recently been replaced,
but it is not a good idea to restring a piano and then put it back together again with the
same damper felts. The grooves in the felts would never match the new strings
properly. Therefore, the damper felts were removed and will be fitted to the action
again once the strings are in place. In addition, the let-off button felts were all
replaced at this time.
102) 
103) 
104) 
102) The new sound board panel has finally arrived. It was custom made to my
specifications in Canada by Andre Bolduc,
the finest maker of sound board panels in the world.
103) They keys have now been rebushed. Happily, the keys had not suffered from
the high moisture that the rest of the action had suffered with. They key tops and
other glue joints in the keys are all intact. All that had to be done with these is
rebushing. You can see some of the new key bushings in this picture.
104) The hammer butts suffered terribly from the bad conditions that the piano has
lived in. It was not planned that these parts would be restored or replaced but upon
close inspection, it was discovered that all the glue joints had failed and the leather
had turned as hard as a brick. In my opinion, it would have been a waste of time and
effort to try to repair them. Therefore, new parts were purchased and assembled.
The joint of the shanks (dowels) and the hammer butts was put together with
Titebond 2. This glue is very water proof but is not easily reversed. This
particular joint is one that cannot be reversed nor does it ever need to be. It is
usual to drill the dowels out if they have to be replaced. However, the joint of the
dowels with the hammers was done with hot hide glue. This joint needs to be reversed
in the future once these hammers wear out and need to be replaced. Hide glue is very
strong but is easily reversed without damaging the parts in the future.
105) 
106) 
107)
105) After the new hammer butts, shanks and hammers were assembled, I went to
reattach the hammer springs. As I went down the line of springs, I found a number of
them broke off. Many others seemed to be holding fine. However, since a few
broke off, I decided it would be best to really test the rest of the springs by bending
them over hard to see if they could take the stress. They couldn't, so new springs
are being fitted to the rail in this picture.
106) The hammers have been installed, here. You can also see that the damper
felts have now been removed. Some of the original brown colored back check felts had
fallen off long ago and were missing. The rest of them were in excellent condition
except that they needed to be reglued. You can see, however, that a few new felts
had to be put on the far left of the picture.
107) The new sound board panel has now been dried and has been fitted into the piano
for an very tight fit.
108) 
109) 
110) 
108) Before installing the new sound board, the bottom part of the
superstructure of the piano had to be gone over. The moisture that the piano had
been exposed to had badly damaged the glue joints and wood at the bottom of the
piano. Here, you see that the fresh glue is being clamped. In addition, hard
maple dowels were installed into various places where it would serve to reinforce the
entire thing.
109) Using index holes that were drilled through the old sound board and into the
piano before the old board was removed and then transferred onto the new board from
the piano, the old and new sound boards are aligned. Then all of the various holes
that must be drilled into the new sound board are transferred from the old board.
Also, in the case of this piano, due to the unusual way the ribs were made, rib locations
were also transferred at this time. The rib marks were then compared to various
other indexing methods to get the best possible alignments.
110) The new sound board panel has now had all the necessary holes drilled into it.
111) 
112) 
113) 
111) The new ribs have been shaped to the 60 foot radius that will give the sound
board its crown. They have now also been fitted for length and angle of cut by
mating them to the piano itself.
112) After the length of the ribs is correct and the glue joints have been properly
shaped, the new ribs are clamped to the old sound board next to their corresponding old
ribs. The clamping is necessary because the old board must be bent to mate with the
new rib. Then the shape of the original rib is transferred onto the side of the new
rib. They will then be cut out on the band saw. The negatives from the cutting
will be used as clamping cauls when the board is put into the press.
113) The press has been set up to fit this sound board. You can see in this
picture how the press is shaped to impart the appropriate crown into the board.
114) 
115) 
116) 
114) The "skin" of the sound board has been placed into the press.
115) The ribs are placed in the piano in the appropriate places to keep them in
order as the sound board is glued up. This will make it possible to know exactly
where the rib that is needed next is and in what orientation it needs to be placed in the
press. that prevents mistakes from occurring. You can also see in this picture
that the ribs have been cut out and you can see the crown that is installed in the glue
joints.
116) Before the first rib to be glued in is placed into the press, the rib that sits
next to it is placed into the press and it's clamping caul is placed above it in an upside
down position. Spreader clamps are used to press the rib and board "skin"
firmly down into the curve of the press. By doing this first, it is easier to get
the first rib to be glued in position without it moving around on you as it is being
clamped down.
117) 
118) 
119)
117) All of the ribs are now clamped down and the entire assembly is ready to be put
back into the drying tent while the glue cures over night.
118) Another picture of the entire sound board in the gluing press.
119) A tent is placed over the press and a heater and humidity gauge placed inside.
The wood has been taken down so that the moisture content of the spruce is 5%.
The heat is set so that this moisture content will be maintained until after the
glue has cured.
120) 
121) 
122) 
120) The board has cured over night and is now out of the press. The
glue squeeze out that was missed during clamping is removed with a razor blade, chisel and
sand paper. Then the ribs are rounded with a hand plane and sanded smooth. In
the case of this piano, the thickness of the board "skin" and rib size was
changed slightly in order to improve on the original design.
121) The bass bridge is being glued onto the sound board in this picture. The
sound board press is used for this as well. The treble bridge was also glued in
inside this press but I forgot to take a picture of that. The use of the press to
glue in the long bridge is especially important because it causes the same 60 foot radius
crown to be imparted into the glue joint with this bridge, thus making the long bridge the
most important "rib" in the sound board, since it is the only rib that
reinforces the correct crown at the 90 degree angle to the ribs.
122) The fronts of the old board and the new board side by side.
123) 
124) 
125) 
123) The backs of the old board and the new board side by side.
124) This picture shows the crown of the new board.
125) This picture shows how the ribs of the old board had not only lost all their
crown but had actually started to bend in the opposite direction.
126) 
127) 
128) 
126) The glue joints of the sound board and the tops of the bridges are taped off
and then the board receives its finish.
127) The completed sound board is placed into the piano and pressed into place with
a few clamps. This is done to check that the ribs are actually fitting where they
are supposed to. In this case, a few ribs had to have a little sanding done on their
ends to make them fit properly.
128) One reason that the original sound board failed was that the glue ledge that
held it (called the "rastin") was not angled in such a way as to reinforce the
crown of the board. Since the board is not flat, it does not come into contact with
the piano at a 90 degree angle. Instead the angle is about 1 1/2 degrees off the
exact 90 degree setting. Sadly, Baldwin had cut this ledge at 90 degrees.
Therefore, using long straight edges and a micrometer for measurement and files, chisels,
and a die grinder for cutting, the rastin was reshaped to have the correct gluing
angle. Now hide glue has been placed on the freshly cut rastin and the sound board
laid into place. First, the board is flattened into place with a few
"pinning" clamps.
129) 
130) 
129) The sound board is now totally clamped into
place. You can see, in this picture, that it takes a great many clamps to install a
sound board.
130) The back of the piano was cleaned and given a fresh spray of lacquer to freshen
up its appearance.
