I’ve been threatening to build a storage shed at the ranch for some time now. After going through everything in the shop and selling, discarding, or giving everything away I could, it was still too crowded to work effectively. I needed more space. A friend had recently mentioned a sale on small buildings at Costco — it was worth a look.
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The solar-powered rainwater system was complete — except for more panels, and a cable to isolate the rainwater power from the rest of the system. Construction on the rainwater system began in 2002, when I trenched the various wires and pipes into the ground. I needed power for the rainwater system, and tapped into an underground wire originally intended to supply power to the well.
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With casters installed and a rudimentary understanding of action adjustments, I was able to tinker. Hammer alignment went quickly, and as predicted, the sotto voce pedal now worked properly. Since the rockers were not snugged into their final position, they tended to drift, so I touched up the hammer line and let-off, and put the action back into the piano. It was time to play!
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As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, the Weber had been without casters for about 20 years. After we moved to our log home, I was eager to make it more playable, but there was a distinct rattling!
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At the beginning of this project, my piano technician friend Jack recommended I read Regulating Grand Piano Touch and Tone by Danny L. Boone. It breaks the process down into 56 steps from reshaping the hammers to adjusting the pedals. I spent some time with it, but dove into the process with Bernard’s and Celeste’s help without really reading it all.
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After the much-needed boost of demonstrating the Weber with rebuilt action at our piano gathering, I was eager to continue. Time to align the hammers so they centered on the strings and shifted correctly when the soto voce pedal (or “soft” pedal, on the left) was pressed.
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We were hosting a group of our pianist friends on Saturday, and I hoped to have the action back together and with luck, installed in the piano for a little preliminary “plunking”. Time was short!
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Back on track with the sharps refinish, let-off buttons and hammer rest repairs, I was looking forward to the last bits before reassembling the action: key leveling and key weights.
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This far into the action rebuild, and I confess to a little project fatigue. After so many months, the end seemed to be receding into the distance. After the excitement of receiving new hammers, I lost a month to a California trip and other things around the ranch that needed attention, and it was a little hard to get my head back into the game.
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