Restoration of a Fischer Ampico grand for Jim Durfee
217) 
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219) 
217) Sanding the lid. After this sanding is complete,
a single coat of retarded lacquer will be sprayed over the surface to create a product
that is virtually perfect with a high gloss. I can then rub out the final
imperfections and establish the correct gloss with minimal effort.
218) First, let me apologize for the quality of the next few photos. A mistake
in saving caused the file quality to be lower than usual. The images will,
therefore, seem a bit less clear. In this photo, the skin of the sound board is
being fitted into the rim of the piano. The wood has been dried in my drying box
until it has shrunk the correct amount. This will allow the board to become tense
inside the rim of the piano once the moisture level in the wood comes back up again after
the gluing up is finished. In the mean time, the shop is kept as dry as possible to
keep the board from growing until it is time. Because of the weather conditions at
the time this was done, it meant that I had to work in a shop which was blistering hot
with the thermostat set at close to 80 degrees.
219) Once the skin of the board has been well fitted into the rim, it is indexed so
that the original orientation of the bridges and the ribs is transferred onto the new
board. Now the index holes which were drilled into the old board before removal are
lined up with the marks on the new board and then all other important marks are
transferred. These marks include the indexes on the bridges and the holes for the
nose bolts.
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222) 
220) Now the skin of the board is marked for
diaphramization. A pencil line is made around the perimeter of the board to guide me
and kerf marks are cut into the wood with a Japanese back saw. These kerf marks are
made to a depth of 1/3 the thickness of the board. This tapers off to nothing near
the high treble end of the board. After these marks are made, the wood is sanded
until the marks are obliterated. This gives me an even thinning of the board which
will make the entire assembly more flexible once glued into the piano.
221) Now the board has gone back into the drying box over night and then brought out
the next day and glued up. The ribs are being glued to the board in this photo.
In the past, I have always used hot hide glue for this task. On this project,
I am trying a new acoustic glue made by Andre Bolduc which dries more clearly than hide
glue and just as hard. It is an excellent glue to use because it will transmit
vibrations well and, yet, is totally reversible in the future. This means that this
new board will be able to be replaced in exactly the same manner in the future. This
new acoustic glue will come back out of the wood just like hide glue does. This
acoustic glue has the added benefit of a longer open period and a faster setting up
period. You have a bit more time to work than with hide glue and yet you only have
to leave it in the clamps for two to three hours before it is set sufficiently to be
removed. Just to be safe, I left this one in the press over night as usual so I
could be certain of how this glue cured. Although I had made test glue ups to ensure
quality, I had not yet used the glue in a completed project so I wanted to play it safe.
The glue did, indeed, set up in the time that was suggested so future boards can
have the ribs and bridges glued on the same day.
222) Once the ribs were glued up, the board was removed from the press and the
treble and bass bridges were laid in. Then the board was put back into place and the
press assembled over it. Once the press was ready, a dry fit of the bridges was made
and everything was readied. Then the treble bridge was glued up and clamped into
place with all clamping cauls in position. Then, the bass bridge was glued up as
well.
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225) 
223) After the board was fully assembled, the profile of the
ribs was completed to match the original with a planer and sanding. Any glue squeeze
out that was troublesome was removed with a sharp chisel.
224) Now it is time for another new technique. The board was set into the
piano and the glue joint marked with a pencil. Then the area of the board which was
to receive glue was taped off. Next I used the West System Epoxy to coat the board
on both sides. The epoxy is spread over the surface and then scraped off. The
epoxy is burnished into the wood and the excess removed with clean cotton rags. This
was done to the top and the bottom of the board. There are many reasons for doing
this. Kiln dried spruce is never as dense or "brittle" as air dried
spruce. Especially spruce which has been air dried for many decades. The more
brittle character of air dried spruce makes it a better conductor of vibrations. I
have discovered that a coating of this epoxy will actually take the kiln dried spruce and
move it towards the character of air dried. The panel becomes a better conductor of
vibration. It also is now able to sustain vibrations for a longer period. The
idea is that when the string sets the board in motion, the board has enough power of
sustain that it reactivates the string which, in turn, reactivates the sound board.
The two stimulate each other effectively increasing sustain. The other thing this
should do for us is to enable the sound board to be more efficient at moving the air
especially at the highest frequencies. This will effectively enrich the tone and
achieve a better balance throughout the various registers of the instrument. After
the epoxy had cured, it was lightly sanded and the bottom surface of the board was
lacquered with Mohawk's classic instrument lacquer. This lacquer is specially made
for use on guitars and violins. It has the hardness needed to move air and the
flexibility needed to enhance vibrations. The top side of the board will be finished
later. Once the moisture content of the wood has risen, the top surface of the board
usually develops some slight raising of grain and other irregularities. These are
allowed to develop and then sanded off. Once done, the top side of the board is
lacquered.
225) Gluing the completed sound board into the piano. The clamping cauls for
this are in two layers. The lower layer is made of a plywood strip which sits
directly over the sound board where it glues to the rastin. The second layer is of
cauls which are specially designed to fit closely to each other all around the rim and
with a 1 1/2 degree bevel at their bases to ensure that the sound board is well glued into
the rastin which is also beveled at this angle.
226) 
227) 
228) 
226) Taping off and finishing the last of the piano (the
rim.)
227) Gluing the pin block and plate mounts into place. This was very difficult
because this plate uses no nose bolts. Therefore, there was nothing to use to hold
the plate suspended in mid air as I set the bearings. After a first attempt at
setting the plate bearings, I found that the finished height was not satisfactory.
Therefore, I had to drill out all the new plate mounting dowels and set the plate all over
again. This also meant installing and removing the plate an extra two times.
It was worth it, however, because the final product was just right. The original
design of this piano had the pin block floating in mid air under the plate. There
weren't really even any good ledges on which to glue the pin block. It became
necessary, therefore, to clean up the old wood and install new wood in some areas
(especially the bass) so that the pin block would have a solid hardwood shelf on which to
be glued to. All in all, this was one of the most difficult pin block installations
I've ever faced since I had to practically redesign the rim of the piano in order to
accommodate a properly fitted (Steinway style-full fit) pin block. This photo shows
some clamps installed to force the treble end of the pin block down into the glue on the
treble shelf. You can also see clamps holding the stretcher to the pin block where
it was also glued. Originally these would have not had any glue. Now they are
glued and doweled into place. You'll note that no clamping cauls or pads are used.
The clamps themselves have built in padding which makes this unnecessary.
228) The plate after much of the dirt was cleaned off. The next step will be
to sand it, tack rag it, then lacquer it with gold. Then the
sanding/tacking/lacquering process will be repeated until the finished surface is smooth
and free of defects. A final coat of clear lacquer is applied to give it a nice
gloss.
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231) 
229) The plate is done and installed. The tuning pin
bushings have been driven into the plate. The piano has been padded off to protect
it and now the stringing begins.
230) The strung piano is now pulled up to pitch. Because small changes can
occur during the process of rebuilding, I always wait until now to make a paper pattern
for the bass strings. This will ensure the best possible fit for those strings.
The pattern has now been made and sent out to the string maker. It is
perfectly safe to pull the treble wire up to pitch without the bass strings in place.
Therefore, the piano is pulled up so that the strings can begin stretching and
seating themselves with the aim of stabilizing the tuning. It is nice to note that
the new pin block and sound board are so stable that it only took two passes to get it to
A440. The system barely compressed at all. This is a sure sign that the piano
is very solidly built at this point. If only the rim had been made of maple instead
of poplar, I would be content to stack this finished piece up against any Steinway on the
market. Even though the rim is of a softer wood, the finished piece promises to to
sound incredible.
231) This picture shows the hammers being bored to fit the piano and the other photo here
shows them being mounted. For years I have allowed my hammer supplier to do the
boring and shaping of my hammers. However, my quality standards are very high and it
has become impossible for my supplier to meet my expectations without the piano in his
presence. Therefore, I now bring in the hammers in a more basic condition and bore
and shape them myself. This enables me to correct factory errors and to make for a
better fitting and sounding finished product. This set of hammers, in fact, helped
convince me that I had to bore and taper my own hammers from now on. The first set
of hammers sent were bored and tapered to match the samples sent. However, they
didn't come anywhere close to matching anything and were, therefore, rejected. The
supplier sent replacement hammers which were not bored and tapered. However, the
replacement set was still wrong because the moldings were a quarter to three eighths of an
inch longer than the originals. Longer moldings make it possible for me to check the
hammers higher which improves repetition so I decided to accept this set and try boring
them as is. As I set up for the job, it became apparent that Fischer had corrected
an error in the wrong way. I suspect that much of this piano was made by combining
parts of other models of instruments together into this one instrument. The plate is
much smaller than the rim of the piano really requires making suspect it was originally
designed for a different model. And the hammers had to be angled (we call this
angling "rake") in order to get the tails to clear the rest of the action;
especially the hammer lift rail. I think this design was originally intended for a
stationary hammer rail. With this piano being set up to be a player which required a
lifting hammer rail, accommodations had to be made. Angling the hammers to keep the
striking point the same while moving the tail further out has the bad result of reducing
the power of the blow. I decided to drill these hammers at 90 degrees and correct
the problem by making a new hammer lift rail. The original hammers were also drilled
in such a way that the shanks were not parallel with the strings at the point of contact.
This also reduces the power of the blow. By resetting the bore length and
changing the rake to zero, I will greatly improve the power of the instrument. As a
result, however, I may end up having to trim the tails of the hammers but will wait until
the action is regulated and I'm positive before doing so. I will also make a new
hammer lift rail that is stronger than the flimsy original that will also clear the hammer
tails without compromising the the bore angle like Fischer did. The bottom line is
that I invested two days into fitting hammers that normally would only take a few hours.
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233) 
234) 
232) The next problem with this action has to do with key
weight and alignments of parts. The original hammers were very light weight with
very delicate moldings to help clear the action. The new parts have more weight
which will give us much more power. However, the new whippens which have been
selected necessitate that the capstans be moved slightly toward the balance rail.
The hammers have also been moved closer to their pivot points during the drill angle
correction. These two steps will help reduce the extra weight being added to the
system. The less weight, the less lead I have to add to the keys. The less
lead there is in the keys, the less inertia the artist or player mechanism have to
overcome to set the keys into motion; thus better repetition and control. The
changes have been calculated to keep the ratio of hammer motion and key travel in balance
while reducing the inertia of the system. Also, the resetting of the bore lengths to
correct the original Fischer errors will mean that the entire action will rest higher up
than originally. In addition, the new whippens are a little less tall than the
originals. This all means that the capstan screws would have to be turned up at
least a quarter of an inch over their original height. Since raising the capstans
this high can cause them to become loose in the key, I have selected the option of raising
the wood of the key. The capstans were all removed and the original holes drilled
out and plugged with hardwood.
233) Next, the problem of the shape of the keys must be overcome. The keys
slope upwards right at the point of the capstans. The upward slope isn't enough to
raise the capstans in their new locations as high as I need. Therefore, I have
planed these areas of the keys square and flat using a forstner bit in the drill press.
234) Next, hardwood risers were glued to the keys in this area. A scale stick
made from the whippen locations and collated with the original capstan locations is used
to mark the new wood for the new capstan locations (closer to the balance rail).
However, before the scale stick could be made or any other of the needed measurements
done, I had to correct the fact that the center holes that the keys ride on had become
badly worn. This caused the keys to shuck in and out when they shouldn't move in
that direction at all. I used aliphatic resin glue to coat the wood of the balance
holes. After the glue was dry, the keys were forced down over the center pins and
worked until the fit was perfect. Then, to avoid the possibility that the glue might
cause squeaks, I coated all of them with a layer of powdered Teflon. Then the key
bushings were fitted to the frame and checked to be sure that they were as tight as
possible while being totally free in their movement. Also, the fit is done with the
idea that humidity changes will come and cause the keys to swell. They were set just
loose enough to help them avoid becoming stiff in humid weather. After the new
capstan locations are drilled out, the capstans will be screwed down into them.
Since I'm using hardwood most of the way up, it is very hard work getting the capstans
started but this will ensure that they are solid in the key and will not move about over
time. The wood risers that were added to the highest section were made of poplar
instead with an eye towards keeping that area of the action as light as possible.
The rest of the risers were made from hard birch just like the wood the new action is made
from. All this extra work could have been avoided but the final result would have
been significantly compromised if I had. This project with the keys and hammers has
extended the time for replacing this action by nearly a week.