Restoration of a Sterling player piano for the Stone family of Plano Texas.
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33) The main case of the piano has now been lacquered. The bridges and sound
board are finished and the plate finished. Now the plate has been reinstalled into
the piano and new maple tuning pin bushings have been driven into the plate. These
bushings are wooden inserts that cause the joint between the tuning pin and the plate to
be totally snug. Some types of pianos only have the tuning pins touch the pin block
itself. In this piano, these maple inserts are driven into the web of the plate so
that when the tuning pins are driven in, they will be held tightly by not only the pin
block but by the plate (via the bushings) as well. This also causes the pin block,
frame and plate assembly to act more as one unit than would otherwise be possible.
It really lends a good deal of additional strength to the entire system. Finally,
the maple bushings are drilled out so that the holes in the bushings match the holes in
the pin block exactly.
34) Now it is time to restore the action. Here is the action before work
began.
35) The old hammers have been removed except for the guide hammers and the new
hammers are being glued in place. Hide glue is always used for gluing hammers in
this shop. This is a glue joint that needs to be able to be taken apart again so
hide glue is always used here. It is strong while it is in place but it is easily
reversed to replace the hammers without damaging the shanks. The shanks were tested
first to make sure they were still strong before this was done. If they had proven
to be weak, they would have been replaced first.
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36) The hammers are all installed.
37) New bridle tapes have also been installed, the jacks have been lubricated and
the let-off buttons have been replaced. This part of the action is now done except
for the new damper felts. Those need to be installed with the action in the piano
after the strings have been installed.
38) Here is the set of key sticks before they were restored.
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39) Sadly, the cloth bushings had been glued into the piano with white glue that was
still holding very strongly. The wooden buttons that are glued to the keys (the
bushings being glued inside the buttons) were glued down with hide glue which was not very
strong any more. The result was that the buttons started to come a little loose by
the time the bushings were out. So they were pulled off the rest of the way and
glued back down with fresh glue. You can see a part of the keyboard (as many as
would fit in the camera's window) sitting with clamps holding the buttons tight until the
glue sets. After the glue had set, the new bushings were installed.
40-41) After the key bushings were finished, the brass capstans at the back of the
keys were polished. Then the ebonies were separated from the set, sanded with fine
sand paper, cleaned and resurfaced. After the ebonies had been sprayed with new
lacquer, they were each individually hand rubbed for a very flat and smooth touch that
will be a pleasure to play. Next, the ivories were sanded by hand with fine sand
paper. Then they were bleached twice, sanded again and then polished to a very high
gloss. They came out exceedingly well. Finally, the few keys that had chips in
them were repaired and the material that filled the chips was shaped, colored and polished
to make an invisible repair.
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42) The lid has been rubbed out and you can see the beautiful reflection the wood
produces now.
43) Sadly, someone had been very hard on the lid. There were some cross grain
long lined gouges in the wood. This is, without doubt, the most difficult type of
damage to repair. Due to the fact that any fillers put into such gouges would tend
to contaminate the pores of the surrounding wood, thus magnifying the damaged appearance.
These gouges were best filled with the same filler that filled the pores of the
wood itself. In this way, the colors all matched and the damages were minimized.
The best way to fix such a terrible gouge completely is really to replace the
veneer entirely.
44) The plain wire strings are now in place.
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45) Another view of the piano with its new plain wire strings and all the new
stringing felts and braid in place. Stringing braid is laced among the waste lengths
of the strings so that you don't hear those untuned string segments ringing when the piano
is played.
46) Another view of the strung piano. The bass strings are on order at the
time of this picture so the piano was place up on its feet again so that a different piano
could be strung.
47) The new bass strings have arrived from Isaac Piano and are now installed.
The stringing braid is not yet in place on these strings yet. You will note the lack
of any felt under the tail ends of the bass strings where they hook onto the plate.
In order to get the down bearing on the bass bridge the way I wanted it I chose not to put
any felt under the tails of the strings here. Stringing braid laced between the back
segments will prevent any ringing on those untuned string lengths.
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48) Rubbing out the sides of the case. The white material is chewed up lacquer
that was revealed after the rubbing liquid was allowed to evaporate. This is brushed
or rinsed off before more rubbing is done.
49) This picture was taken to show you how mirror-like the finished product is.
The gloss is satin but when viewed at a glancing angle, objects are readily
reflected in the surface.
50) Now all the stringing braids and other felt are in place.
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51) The bottom board had come unglued a bit at one side. The joints were
reglued and dowel rods driven across the joints to keep them from separating again.
This board was also filthy from being at the bottom of the piano collecting dust for so
many decades. It received a good washing and some of the mechanical devices screwed
to the other side of it received any needed work.
52) Hey, it's starting to look like a piano again!
53) The action is back in place. The strings had not yet been chipped to
pitch. They were just given enough tension to make them straight and to make them
stay put. Now the action and strings were mated to each other. The spacing on
the string unisons were adjusted slightly as were the locations left to right of the
hammers. Then the piano was chipped up to pitch.
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54) The new damper felts are now glued into place.
55-56) The bottom action of the player stack is being reinstalled. In the case
of this piano, the player mechanism had been rebuilt by some other person previously so
all that was required of me was to rebuild the piano.
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57) The top action had to be dismantled so that the lifter fingers on the player
mechanism could be regulated exactly to the pianos action.
58) Upon preparing to regulate the player stack's lifter fingers to the action of
the piano it was discovered that the previous rebuilder had not bothered to replace the
leather nuts that connect everything. These nuts were completely disintegrated now.
You can see in this picture how the slightest touch turns them to powder that drops
to the work bench.
59) Now the stack has all new leather nuts and felt washers.
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60) The stack is back in the piano and working again. It is not as tight as it
was the day it left the factory but it is working well enough to make pumping it enjoyable
rather than fatiguing.
61) Here you can see the decorative board that covers the pin block being glued back
into place. You'll remember it had to be removed to make room for the router when
the pin block was being routed for the new inserts of delignit.
62) The piano is being wired up so that it can play by itself, then rewind the rolls
when the song is over and then shut itself off. The device in the middle sensed when
the roll has been rewound and shuts the piano off. The other two devices are used to
set the suction levels for play and rewind. In this way, it is possible to have the
motor speed set for just the right rewind speed without effecting the playing volume since
the playing volume is set with a different rheostat.
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63) Looking inside the spool box, you can see the knobs that operate the automation
system. The black button in the middle that is almost impossible to see in this
picture turns the piano on. The right knob sets the playing volume and the left knob
sets the rewind speed.
64) In order for the piano to know whether it should be setting the suction levels
for play or rewind, two microswitches have to be placed so that the arms that put the
piano into play and rewind can activate them.
65) Here, you see those microswitches again as well as the device that throws the
piano into rewind at the end of the roll. A perforation in the music roll will
signal this device. The pneumatic slams shut pulling the arm into the rewind
position. When the arm is thrown over, it hits the rewind microswitch at the same
time that it lets go of the play microswitch. You can also see the suction turbine
in this picture. It is the automation system's "power plant."
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66) The piano is completely done, including refinishing the
bench.
67) Here, you see the piano while the automation system is playing it.
Numerous rolls are run through the piano for a period of hours to make sure that
everything is working properly. This also helps to stabilize the tuning. The
more the piano can be played before it gets back home, the longer it will be between
tunings for the first year.
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68) The piano arrives in its new home.
69) The entire Stone family poses with their newly restored piano. On the left
is Mr. Stone's mother who grew up with this piano.
© Copyright 2010 {David Rodgers' Piano Rebuilding}. All Rights Reserved.