|
Before hanging the hammers, the shanks need to be traveled or make sure they rotate straight up and down without tilting to the left or right. The WNG composite shanks reflex light crazily. Marking the tips of shanks with a white sharpie helps seeing the irregularly moving ones. lift shanks up and down with a long rod and watch. If shank is traveling to the right, put a shim on the right side on bottom of flange, then check, vise versa. The shims here are cut from sticky labels. Set up a stand for hammers to sit on. The shanks shall be level with the height of hammer flange center pin. The homemade stand height is adjustable by turning up and down the screws on four corners. Take sample hammers from section ends, mark center line on both sides and top of these hammers. Check shank length by design for this piano, dry fit note 1 and 88 hammers, check shank length often before gluing down. The homemade jig for hanging sample hammers makes sure hammers are glued 90 degrees front and back to the shank. Glue on note 1 and 88, use a jig or square to square hammer left to right. The jig here is made by Christ Brown. Fast drying glue is used here, takes seconds to set. When glue is dried, align a long straight edge against note 1 and 88 hammer tails, clamp it down. This is to align all hammers. Mark where the glue line will be according to the samples. This will make applying glue much easier for the rest of hammers. Tape a thread on top center of #1 and #88 hammers, glue on rest of section end hammers, top center under thread, bottom against long straight edge. The WNG shanks require thick super glue. It dries in seconds. So the work will be down fast and accurately. Apply glue behind the line marked before, then put some more glue in hammer holes. For each hammer, nail the angle on data sheet with a protractor, make sure it is square, bottom of hammer against strait edge, and back of hammer in line with sample hammers at section ends. Place the hammer angle data sheet near by to check often. After gluing on a few hammers, spray accelerator so they won't move by accident. Now, music can be turned on. Go with the flow, one hammer at time. For this set of hammers, the drill bit for the holes was slightly smaller than expected. A reamer was used to enlarge the holes, and all hammers dry fit before gluing. This does not happen all the time. But dry fitting is very important no matter when. By the end of day, hammers are hang, let rest, and glue completely dry over night. Going home... again.
Comments are closed.
|
