Concealment

Oh, happiness. Two months and one week later, our pins arrive!

Front rail and balance pins. 

They're sitting in Dés's workshop ready to go into the keyboard. Then the keyboard will go into the piano, and the Lirika action will hopefully go on top of that - and we'll hear what our piano sounds like.

What a terrifying thought.

Had an interesting experience yesterday. Doing some final adjustments to the Kimball we've been working on. A couple of the keys were catching, likely due to exposure to damp in the past, and it was making them impossible to play. Had a good look at them, but it was quite hard to tell exactly where they were catching. For lack of chalk, Marion waxed the keys to protect them, then coated a thin layer of concealer across them. She popped them back int he piano and had another play. The concealer highlighted the areas that were rubbing and she got to work with the sandpaper.

When needs must.

It took a lot of sandpapering, and they're not a hundred per cent, but they're much better than they were and you can now play all the keys. We'll monitor the situation and maybe break open the power sander later down the line.

 

Springing into Action

Another disappointing day at the post office. Next week will be two months since we placed the order for rail pins from America. I think this is the major decider about whether we can manufacture pianos. Next to whether we can build one, it's a supply issue. The postal system is just unbelievably slow.  It's particularly frustrating as it's the last piece in the jigsaw before we find out whether the piano plays. 

In the mean time, we're continuing to work on the Hamilton for Bugasera Lodge. Marion replaced all 88 springs over the weekend. You can see the difference it makes in the video above. Meanwhile, Désiré had a go at making replacement hammer butt flanges for a couple that had broken. Going to try them out tonight. If we can't make them ourselves, we'll need to order the parts - and that would take a really long time.

Hoping to take the action back to Bugasera on Saturday, then wax all the rail pins and put in new felt for the back rail, which was looking really worn. With any luck, that should result in a playable piano.