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.
Continue reading →
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.
Continue reading →
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!
Continue reading →
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.
Continue reading →
It’s been a while since I reported on the Solar Powered Rainwater Project. Since that early-April post, I’ve been gathering the rest of the parts, and we took our annual trip to the Red Power Roundup — this year at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. The biggest part of the delay was waiting for the inverter/charge controller. I wasn’t thrilled with the delivery delay on the device, but it turned out well in the end.
Continue reading →
The new 250-watt solar panels arrived very quickly. I was eager to install them, but they were just a bit larger than I could handle safely on the garden shed roof. Fortunately, I didn’t have too wait long, and my neighbor Jason was available a few days later.
Continue reading →
