Puppalloon Program at Manheim BIC Church

Last evening Rosanna and I had the privilege of partnering with our children's pastor at McBIC , Dave Truitt, to provide a "puppalloon program. The event was to celebrate the end of the club year at the Manheim BIC Church. The program was a combination of puppetry, ventriloquism and ballooning. Dave is an expert ballooner, and was the star of the program. Check out his blog at www.balloonpastor.com. I enjoyed using three of my vent puppets in three different skits. Rosanna and I also did a skit with stage puppets. The theme of the evening was from Luke 12:34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Tool Time- Time Out

One of the unseen costs of running a piano rebuilding shop is the time and expense of maintaining your tools and equipment. I hate to say it, but I have a drawer full of chisels that desperately need some love and attention. It is especially critical to maintain power tools at their optimal level of tuning and sharpness (yes, you can tune power tools). This morning I spent over an hour replacing blades and tuning up my Makita power planer/joiner. This is a wonderful tool when properly maintained, but worthless when dull and out of tune. The most common maintenance item is keeping the blades sharp. Other items include cleaning and polishing the beds of the machine, tuning infeed and out feed rollers, replacing belts and brushes, and lubrication. This morning I did everything on this list except replacing belts and brushes. The most time consuming is changing out the planer and joiner blades. I keep a freshly sharpened set on hand at all times, so that if I accidentally nick a set, I can replace them immediately. It costs about $1.00 per inch to have them sharpened. In this machine there are 2-12" blades and 2-6" blades. The satisfaction received after completing this job is being able to plane the pieces of rock hard maple for the bridge that I am working on to a mirror smooth finish. Doing high quality work requires high quality equipment in immaculate condition. Anything less is an invitation for disaster.

Bridge Patterns Steinway O

We begin the bridge cap replacement by removing the old bridge pins. This is done by clamping on the old pin with a vise grip and pulling it out with a rotating motion. After the bridge pins have been removed, the next step is to make accurate patterns that will be used to relocate the bridge pins on the new bridge cap. I use .030" thick polycarbonate sheet material for my pattern material. It is ideal because it is clear, and is easy to cut and drill. We begin making the pattern by tracing the contour of the bridge onto the sheet, and then cutting the sheet to make pieces to place on top of the bridge. The blank pattern is taped into place, after which the drill press is used to drill indexing holes about every 9" through the pattern material, and completely through the bridge body. With the indexing pins in place, an awl is used to press a dimple into the pattern directly over the bridge pin holes. We then use a drill to drill a hole through the pattern into the vacant bridge pin hole. The result is a very accurate pattern that will be used to layout the new bridge cap. After the patterns are completed, the old caps are removed with a bandsaw.

Preschool Puppets Easter Program

On Saturday morning I was privileged to be a small part of an Easter celebration at McBIC for preschoolers. Our Preschool leaders did a great job of making the Easter story alive for these little people. I used two of my puppets to tell a small part of the story. Kandy Korn is my little girl monster puppet. She was very sad because one of her friends moved far away. She learned that she has a friend where ever she is. That friend is Jesus. This made Kandy feel better, and went off to make a card to send to her friend. Meanwhile, Uncle Henry , my story teller, told the story of Peter denying Jesus when he was taken away to be crucified. After Jesus' resurrection,Peter learned that Jesus still loved him, even though he messed up. The question for the children- who wants to be your friend? Jesus wants to be your friend forever.

Steinway O- New Soundboard Panel

I purchase my soundboard panels from A. Bolduc, Quebec, Canada. Mr Bolduc personally selects the trees to be cut, cuts them only when they are dormant, and mills the lumber at his own facility. He then hand selects the wood he uses , which is quarter sawn, very straight, clear and close grained. About 5% of the log is suitable for soundboard wood. Before gluing up the panels, the wood is color matched as well. This glued up raw soundboard panel is one VERY expensive piece of wood. When it arrives at my shop, this 5/16" thick panel of Eastern White Spruce is over sized and needs to be fit into the piano.

The first step is to orient the grain direction of the new panel. The old panel is placed on top and positioned so that the grain orientation of the wood on both panels matches. The the old board is then used to trace the outline of the panel onto the new wood. A scroll saw is used to cut the over sized panel down to size...well actually, almost down to size, as I want the new panel to still be slightly oversize so that I can carefully fit it into the piano rim. I use an electric sander to remove wood from the edge of the panel until it fits snugly around the rim sides while it rests on the rim shelf. This work all needs to be done with the wood at a specific EMC (5% in my shop) as the wood will change dimensionally with moisture content changes.

New Steinway O Soundboard Begun

The first step in building the new board is somewhat like building a house. You need to start with the foundation. The foundation of the soundboard are the ribs. Ribs are selected from my stock and are placed on top of the old board to insure that each rough rib is of sufficient length. After noting proper grain orientation, the ribs are cut to the proper length, adding about and inch which will be removed later. The sides of the ribs are then planed to the proper width dimension, and the sides are sealed with schellac. After the schellac has dried, the ribs are fit into the piano. At this time they are cut to the proper length and angle to fit snugly in the notch that is cut into the rim shelf of the piano. Next a crown is cut into the rib to match the desired crown on the finished board. Following the crowning of the ribs, they are planed to the proper thickness. The final step is to cut and sand the reliefs on the ends of the ribs. More finish work will be done on the ribs after they are glued to the new soundboard....but that's a couple work weeks away.

Removing Old Glue From Rim and Bridges

The soundboard and bridges were originally glued into piano with hot hide glue. This glue has been around for many years and is actually made from animal hides. It is quite strong, but is easily reversible. This makes it possible to remove the old glue residue after breaking out the old board, and breaking the bridges from the soundboard. The first step is to use a chisel to remove any wood that is left in the glue line. Then the old glue reside can be removed. We accomplished this by making the old glue wet with a solution of water and wall paper remover. The solution is allowed to soak for 10"-15" on the old glue line, and then the residue is easily removed with a scraper. It is a bit messy as the old glue rejuvenates when it is made wet and becomes quite sticky. The wood parts need to dry overnight before you can continue working.