Steinway Up 20375 Cast Iron Back

I have never seen a piano with a cast iron back. The plate and back are one piece which you can see from the photos of the bottom. I am wondering why this was tried. It seems like an incredibly difficult way to manufacture a piano.

Steinway D 149495 Action work

Work is progressing steadily in setting up the new keys and action parts. This work is quite time consuming and does not make a lot of big physical changes.

The new keyset is sort of like a blank sheet of paper, and a lot of trim pieces need to be added to accommodate the action frame.

The new damper back action has also been manufactured and installed in the action cavity along with the damper heads. I am now in the process of installing the Stanwood Precision Touch Design. Pictures of that process will follow.

Steinway D Belly Work Completed

This past week all the belly work was completed. It is rewarding to finally put all the new pieces together to the final assembly. Several weeks ago the new pinblock was cut out and fitted to the plate. Before the final installation the holes to receive the tuning pins also had to be drilled. The old pin block is used as a pattern.

The completed soundboard is always a beautiful picture.

The completed soundboard with the bridges attached is then glued onto the piano rim.

After the clamps are removed, the board needs some trim pieces attached, sanded, and finish applied.

Finally, the plate is reinstalled, and strings installed.

AAHHHH. Finished

Steinway D Bridge Work

This week I have completed installing new bridge caps on the original bridge body. The first step was to remove the old caps using a table saw. The process is a bit more complicated that normal, as the treble bridge and bass bridge are one piece, rather than 2 separate pieces. After the old caps are removed the top is planed and new hard maple caps are glued to the original body.

The next step is setting the bearing. That involves determining the correct thickness of the bridge cap to accommodate proper down bearing on the soundboard after the piano is string. After the proper thickness is determined, the top is planed to that thickness. The final steps are to drill the new holes for the bridge pins and to hand notch the edges. Finally new bridge pins are installed to the cap.

The completed bridges are glued to the soundboard, and the bridge is doweled throughout the ribs into the bridge.

Steinway D Soundboard

I have built the new soundboard this week. The pictures show the process of using the old board as a pattern to lay out the new ribs. They are then fit into the piano, reliefs cut in ends and finally the ribs are glues to the soundboard in my pneumatic press. The process is actually very more involved than this short summery suggests.

Steinway D 149495

My newest project is well underway. The pictures show the teardown from removing strings, plate and soundboard and finally the bridges. Measurements are taken, and parts indexed to use the original parts to recreate the new soundboard and bridge caps.