Restoration of a Steinway Duo-Art Reproducing Grand for the Schlieter Family
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49) Preparing to glue the pneumatics back onto the valve boards.
50) After the bleed rail was completely torn down, cleaned, resealed and
reassembled, it was tested to be sure it was perfectly air tight.
51) The pneumatics have been glued back on, their fingers reinstalled and the three
tiers of the pneumatic stack reassembled with the air manifolds.
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52) At this angle, you can see all the new outside valve plates with their new
gaskets.
53) At this point, all of the signal tubes were blocked off and the stack tested to
be sure it was air tight. You can see the large circle at the top of the stack is a
vacuum gauge. After the stack was found to be air tight, the suction on the system
was set to 6" and each individual valve tested for fast repetition.
54) Here, new leather nuts are being spun onto the freshly cleaned poppet wires.
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55) All of the poppets have been reinstalled and set to their approximate correct
height. Exact settings will have to wait until the action has been restored.
Then the pneumatic stack's poppets can be regulated to the keys of the action.
56) The piano has now been put into its normal orientation and placed on a cart for
easy moving about the shop. Now it is time to restore the top action of the player
mechanism.
57) This shows that the wind motor (the part that actually moves the paper across
the tracker bar) has been dismantled and two of the three pneumatic assemblies have been
stripped of old pneumatic cloth and cleaned. To the right, you can see one pneumatic
assembly with the old cloth and rotten pouch leather punchings.
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58) Here each of the pneumatic assemblies is in a different stage of the recovering
process. The left most is finished, the right most is just beginning.
59) The completed motor. Happily, the motor tested out very well and is
extremely air tight and smooth operating.
60) This is the expression cut out block. It is being restored and the leather
is receiving a thorough sealing. This is the device that is activated when you turn
the Duo-Art lever to the off position. This enables you to play ordinary 88 note
rolls without creating strange effects in the expression system when normal playing notes
run across the expression holes in the tracker bar.
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61) The restored Duo-Art cut out block.
62) This valve block, shown torn down for restoration, controls many different
functions in the top action.
63) The completed top action has been rebuilt and the parts cleaned and polished.
Truly a lovely piece of equipment to look at when it is in this restored condition.
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64) The piano itself is now being gutted. Here, you see the dampers coming out
and going onto a specially drilled board that keeps them in order.
65) After indexing the plate location and pin block along with the plate height, the
plate has just come out of the piano. You can see the plate in the background as it
sits on the floor with one end still suspended by the hoists in the ceiling.
66) The pin block has just been cut out of the piano.
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67) Three pianos are being worked on at the same time and all three are ready to
have their sound boards dried. Therefore, all three are being put under a tent
together. The air under the tent will be gently heated and well circulated with a
fan to keep a constant humidity level all around each piano. Follow this link to see the tent closed up with
the warmed air swirling around inside.
68) Fitting the new pin block to the plate.
69) In this picture, you can see the dark spots that indicate where the pin block is
actually touching the lip of the plate. When finished, the contact surface is very
nearly 100%.
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70) During the time the pin block was being made, the
piano's loose boards were stripped. Here, you can see the lid is being taken apart
so it can be stripped. This picture was listed here to show the dangers of letting
amateurs work on pianos. The piano had been refinished before. The person who
did the job didn't have enough sense to take the lid apart before stripping. Because
the small support board on the right was not removed from the lid when it was refinished
before, the felt noise suppressing strip that lay between this board and the lid itself
had been soaked with stripper and new finish. Doing this had literally glued this
board to the lid so strongly that it made it very dangerous to remove it. Great time
and care had to be taken to pry the boards apart without causing damage to either.
This was successfully done, but it could have been a disaster because of the previous poor
treatment the piano had received.
71) The tuning pin holes and screw holes are being drilled into the new pin block.
72) Here, the index holes and cards are being laid out onto the new pin block.
Lines are transferred onto the new block from these cards so that the block can be
cut out in such a way that it will hold the plate exactly where it should and will fit the
case perfectly. In order to keep from chiseling one of the music rest guide rails
off the piano, the block had to be cut a little short on the bass end. This will be
made up for when the block is glued and doweled into the case so that strength will not be
compromised. The shortened cut was not so great that the block failed to sit on its
ledge but it will have to be worked with when glued in so that there will be complete and
solid contact with the case.
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