Pinblock Set Up

The first step in putting the Steinway back together is to install the pinblock in it's correct position. Everything else is set up after the pinblock and plate is in the correct position. This includes front to back location, side to side location and height at the bass end, height at the treble end, and height at the rear of the plate. Using the old pinblock as a pattern puts me close to the right position. The old pinblock was indexed to the plate, and the new pinblock is patterned from the same indexing marks. The plate is also indexed to the rim of the piano. Using these locator's and using recorded heights, enables me to return the plate to it's original position. There are times that for various reason, I change the plate location, but that's for another discussion.

Harp Soundboard

It's great to be able to apply some of the skills I've learned in piano rebuilding to harp construction. This past week, I built my first harp soundboard from left over sitka spruce piano soundboard material. Since the harp soundboard is thinner than a piano soundboard, it is possible to plane the thicker material to harp dimensions. This is a solid board, not laminated. I was advised against using solid spruce, but as a piano rebuilder, I can't stomach the idea of a piece of plywood being a sound board. The harp board is 1/4" thick at the bottom, and 1/8" thick at the top. The pieces of spruce were about 4" wide before gluing. Each piece was planes slightly thinner than the previous piece to achieve the taper in thickness. After the panel was glued up, the bottom was sanded flat, while the top was not only tapered from bottom to top, but the edges were also feathered. This is a true soundboard.

Easter 2009

Grandma tells Kara and Benjamin the Easter story with Resurrection eggs.


Kara in her Easter Dress


Benjamin and Karelyn dressed for the day.

Our family enjoyed a wonderful Easter celebration. Our church service included the baptism of 8 individuals, and the "cardboard" testimonies of many individuals telling of Christ's transforming power in their lives. Because He lives, we can face each day with hope and joy. Our two daughters and their families joined us for the noon meal, and an afternoon of fellowship and games. Our son and family, who live in MI was with his wife's parents in the Grand Rapids area.

Steinway O- Fitting Pinblock

The pinblock is a piece of laminated hard wood that receives the tuning pins, keeps the pins tight, but movable, and needs to withstand a total tension force of nearly 40,000 pounds. It is attached to the cast iron frame where the opposite end of the strings are attached. Therefore it is very important that the pinblock is fit properly to the plate to insure good tuning stability, and long term integrity of the pinblock. The plate is made of cast iron, which means there are irregularity's on its surface. So the pinblock must be hand fit to the flange of the plate. I also hand fit the pinblock to the web of the plate as this is often very irregular. This is a step that the majority of rebuilders ignore, but I feel is worth the extra time involve to insure the highest level of stability and integrity.

The first step is to mask off the plate web. This is necessary because I use black enamel to coat the surfaces of the web and flange, and do not want paint running through the tuning pin holes. After these surfaces are coated with a coat of paint, the rough cut pinblock is put in place and tapped . The result is black marks on the high spots of the pinblock. These high spots are sanded off, and the process is repeated.....maybe 30 times until the pinblock matches the plate to my satisfaction. The final step is to coat the face of the block with an auto body polyester filler, and clamp the pinblock to the plate under pressure. This makes a perfect match to all the irregularity's on the plate flange. This is only applied to the flange area. The end result is an assurance of longevity for the pinblock.

Steinway O Soundboard Pressed

After all the holes were drilled, and all the rib indexing was completed, we were ready to prepare the board for pressing. The indexed ribs were placed on the board, and lines were drawn to mark their location. The board is then sealed with schellac EXCEPT where glue joints will be. This requires a steady hand and a bit of care to keep the schellac off the wood that will be a glue joint. When every thing is gathered together, the glue up process begins. Each rib is individually glued in place using the index holes as locaters. A beam is placed on top of the rib, and 100 psi air pressure is applied. Each rib takes about 5 minutes, so this board took about 1 hour to glue up with 11 ribs. The press intentionally "bellies" the board with about 3/16" deflection on the longest ribs.

Harp Sound Box Glued Up

Progress on my harp project is slow,but sure! Today I glued the sound box sides to the back, and also installed the bottom. The next steps will be to install some bracing and then to make the soundboard.

Steinway O Soundboard Indexing

Before removing the old soundboard, I drilled 3 indexing hole through the old soundboard into the rim. Pins are inserted into these holes along with indexing pins that have been installed through the new ribs into the rim. I now place the fitted new soundboard panel on top of the rim, and press down to make indentations into the new board. From these indentations, the old board is placed on top of the new board, and the 3 original indexing hole are aligned with the indentations on the new board. The old board is then used as a pattern to drill all the hole in the new board, including indexing hole that were drilled to locate the bridges before they were removed from the old board. The indexing holes from the ribs are used to locate the ribs on the new board. This provides a very accurate method of locating and transferring all measurements from the old board to the new.