A friend of mine owns an old german piano made in the 1850s.
It is absolutely beautiful wood. Something was wrong with the
damper peddle and he found a tuner that would work on it but
the tuner said he needed a metal worker to repair the damaged
part. That is where I come into the picture.

The piano tuner pulled out a long metal rod (almost 4 feet long)
and about 1/2 inch diameter. Three small rods about 0.2 inchs in
diameter are attached to the long rod, but one is broken off.
This rod apparently holds the dampers off the strings when the
peddle is pushed.

It was very interesting to study the German construction used in
the 1850s.

The metal looks (and machines) exactly like a piece of CRS rod.
I don't know a much about history but was this kind of metal
common back then?

The long rod was cross drilled and counter sunk on each side
for the small rods. The small rods are reduced in size and pressed
into the long rod and peened over to rivit them in. The mushroomed
top was filed off even with the rod and it was not obvious how
they were attached. It was done so well that I could not determine
how they were attached until I tried to drill out the small rod.

The end of each small rod was flattend and drilled to make a small
hinge. The other part of the hinge was a piece of flat stock
with a slot (probably sawed) and pinned to the small round bar.

My point is that the workman ship was excellent and probably
completely done with hand tools. I am impressed and I bow down
to the OLD craftsmans.

I repaired the broken rod by making an extension that went over
the small rod and reduced in diameter to go through the existing
hole in the big rod. I peened it over and filed it off just
like the original. I used loctite and a small pin to secure
the small rod to the extension.

chuck

"Chuck Sherwood" wrote in message
...
snip---

The metal looks (and machines) exactly like a piece of CRS rod.
I don't know a much about history but was this kind of metal
common back then?

No to my knowledge. I would expect it would be wrought iron. Steel was
first made in the 1880's, with Bessemer converters, at least here in the US.

Harold

Chuck Sherwood wrote:
A friend of mine owns an old german piano made in the 1850s.
It is absolutely beautiful wood. Something was wrong with the
damper peddle and he found a tuner that would work on it but
the tuner said he needed a metal worker to repair the damaged
part. That is where I come into the picture.

The piano tuner pulled out a long metal rod (almost 4 feet long)
and about 1/2 inch diameter. Three small rods about 0.2 inchs in
diameter are attached to the long rod, but one is broken off.
This rod apparently holds the dampers off the strings when the
peddle is pushed.

It was very interesting to study the German construction used in
the 1850s.

The metal looks (and machines) exactly like a piece of CRS rod.
I don't know a much about history but was this kind of metal
common back then?

The long rod was cross drilled and counter sunk on each side
for the small rods. The small rods are reduced in size and pressed
into the long rod and peened over to rivit them in. The mushroomed
top was filed off even with the rod and it was not obvious how
they were attached. It was done so well that I could not determine
how they were attached until I tried to drill out the small rod.

The end of each small rod was flattend and drilled to make a small
hinge. The other part of the hinge was a piece of flat stock
with a slot (probably sawed) and pinned to the small round bar.

My point is that the workman ship was excellent and probably
completely done with hand tools. I am impressed and I bow down
to the OLD craftsmans.

I repaired the broken rod by making an extension that went over
the small rod and reduced in diameter to go through the existing
hole in the big rod. I peened it over and filed it off just
like the original. I used loctite and a small pin to secure
the small rod to the extension.

chuck

About 35 years ago I dove with a vengance into collecting and restoring
antique automatic musical instruments. That included music boxes, paper
roll organs, player pianos and nickelodeons. I think I had as many as
six player pianos residing in various corners of our home at the same time.

There were some really ingenious mechanical mechanisms in some of those
beasts, a lot of which were constructed mainly out of wood, leather,
rubberized cloth and glue. There was a some metal content in the hobby,
especially when salvaging beat up music box mechanisms, but much of the
time my drill press and lathe were pressed into making replacement
player piano parts out of various hardwoods.

My favorite gadgets were the D/A converters in high end player pianos
which used digitally encoded intensity tracks on the paper rolls to
control the vacuum level which sucking a little bellows closed to propel
the piano hammer against its strings with the original recording
artist's "touch". Those were used to recreate the "expression" in the
music, leading to Manufacturers' slogans like, "The master's fingers on
your piano."

I can't remember now just which successor hobby nudged that one out of
the way, but I still have one pretty nice player piano and about 500
paper rolls specific to it taking up some space in our playroom. Every
once in a while I fire it up for a guest so I can show off something
interesting like a Rachmaninov concerto recorded for that piano by the
composer himself in 1919.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."

A friend of mine owns an old german piano made in the 1850s.
It is absolutely beautiful wood. Something was wrong with the
damper peddle and he found a tuner that would work on it but
the tuner said he needed a metal worker to repair the damaged
part. That is where I come into the picture.

The piano tuner pulled out a long metal rod (almost 4 feet long)
and about 1/2 inch diameter. Three small rods about 0.2 inchs in
diameter are attached to the long rod, but one is broken off.
This rod apparently holds the dampers off the strings when the
peddle is pushed.

It was very interesting to study the German construction used in
the 1850s.

The metal looks (and machines) exactly like a piece of CRS rod.
I don't know a much about history but was this kind of metal
common back then?

The long rod was cross drilled and counter sunk on each side
for the small rods. The small rods are reduced in size and pressed
into the long rod and peened over to rivit them in. The mushroomed
top was filed off even with the rod and it was not obvious how
they were attached. It was done so well that I could not determine
how they were attached until I tried to drill out the small rod.

The end of each small rod was flattend and drilled to make a small
hinge. The other part of the hinge was a piece of flat stock
with a slot (probably sawed) and pinned to the small round bar.

My point is that the workman ship was excellent and probably
completely done with hand tools. I am impressed and I bow down
to the OLD craftsmans.

I repaired the broken rod by making an extension that went over
the small rod and reduced in diameter to go through the existing
hole in the big rod. I peened it over and filed it off just
like the original. I used loctite and a small pin to secure
the small rod to the extension.

chuck
All I can say is "Good for you, Chuck". I'm always glad to see/hear
of someone repairing something old and returning it to "like new"
condition. I'm proud of ya.....
Ken.

Chuck Sherwood wrote:
A friend of mine owns an old german piano made in the 1850s.
It is absolutely beautiful wood. Something was wrong with the
damper peddle and he found a tuner that would work on it but
the tuner said he needed a metal worker to repair the damaged
part. That is where I come into the picture.

The piano tuner pulled out a long metal rod (almost 4 feet long)
and about 1/2 inch diameter. Three small rods about 0.2 inchs in
diameter are attached to the long rod, but one is broken off.
This rod apparently holds the dampers off the strings when the
peddle is pushed.

It was very interesting to study the German construction used in
the 1850s.

The metal looks (and machines) exactly like a piece of CRS rod.
I don't know a much about history but was this kind of metal
common back then?

The long rod was cross drilled and counter sunk on each side
for the small rods. The small rods are reduced in size and pressed
into the long rod and peened over to rivit them in. The mushroomed
top was filed off even with the rod and it was not obvious how
they were attached. It was done so well that I could not determine
how they were attached until I tried to drill out the small rod.

The end of each small rod was flattend and drilled to make a small
hinge. The other part of the hinge was a piece of flat stock
with a slot (probably sawed) and pinned to the small round bar.

My point is that the workman ship was excellent and probably
completely done with hand tools. I am impressed and I bow down
to the OLD craftsmans.

I repaired the broken rod by making an extension that went over
the small rod and reduced in diameter to go through the existing
hole in the big rod. I peened it over and filed it off just
like the original. I used loctite and a small pin to secure
the small rod to the extension.

chuck

Very cool. I always feel honored when someone wants me to work on
something old and good.

John

The one I made I let the tumbler (barrel) ride on two rollers that
came off a conveyer system. I ran the belt around one of the rollers
so it acts as a pulley. Had a couple more pulleys and a jackshaft to
reduce the motor speed. Works great. I had to made a stop at one end
for the barrel to bump up against. I could not get the rollers
perfectly parallel so the barrel tended to creep to one end.

All I can say is "Good for you, Chuck". I'm always glad to see/hear
of someone repairing something old and returning it to "like new"
condition. I'm proud of ya.....

It really does provide a lot of satifaction to fix something, especially
something that other people value and appreciate.

As a followup, the tuner installed the repaired damper rod and the
happy owner says the piano plays fine. I even got a free meal out
of the deal!

chuck