Current Projects

Restore on Contract

5'6" Baldwin "B" Grand  #78027

Mahogany veneer with dark walnut lacquer. Built in 1936. Rebuilt & Refinished by Ray's Piano Service in 2009.

IMPROVEMENTS:

Rebuild—Dismantle. Remove pins and strings. Repair and refinish soundboard and bridges. Install new pinblock. Restring & Repin.

Recondition action—Tighten all action screws. Repair or replace worn and defective action parts as agreed with owner.

Complete Regulation—Install new damper felts. All adjustments to ensure that piano plays like new, tune to A-440, tune.

Refinish (on sub-contract by a furniture refinisher in Bellingham, WA)—Strip, repair, sand, refinish all wood surfaces semi-gloss black. Install new side rim decal. Reassemble.

SCHEDULE:

Pick Up—from Chewelah, WA, March 8, 2008

Rebuild, Refinish--Summer & Fall 2009

Completion--Delivered to Kirkland, WA on December 19, 2009

5'6" Baldwin "B" Grand #78027 (1936) - "Before, in Chewelah"
 

1 – This is a "one-owner" piano since new. The previous owner has purchased a new Mason & Hamlin Grand for their son who is majoring in piano performance. The immaculate case and minimum wear on felt and leather parts clearly show that it was well cared for.

5'6" Baldwin "B" Grand #78027 (1936) - "Current Status, in our shop"
 

65 – The refinisher has done a great job with the fallboard, lid, and music rest. When these parts have been installed, we will be ready for delivery. . . just in time, during the week before Christmas!

5'6" Baldwin "B" Grand #78027 (1936)
Pictures of the Improvement Process
taken in our shop:

1 – This is a "one-owner" piano since new. The previous owner has purchased a new Mason & Hamlin Grand for their son who is majoring in piano performance. The immaculate case and minimum wear on felt and leather parts clearly show that it was well cared for.

2 – Although the cabinet veneer is mahogany, the dark walnut stain of the original finish has changed the color to a deep brown. The new owner wants black, so we will strip the cabinet and have it refinished semi-gloss black.

3 – We removed the action, air-cleaned all areas of the piano, and removed the lid prop and music rest. We recorded measurements of the downbearing, string heights, plate heights, and damper heights to use as a guide during re-assembly. Then we removed the dampers and placed them in our damper storage rack.

4 – After unbolting the plate, we lifted it out of the piano cabinet using our ceiling-mounted winch.

5 – Prior to destringing, we prepared a "stringing guage guide" showing the size of every string removed. After string removal, we sent the bass strings to the string maker for duplication, and we stored the plate bolts in holes indicating their location in the piano.

6 – After dismantling the piano, we placed all the parts in storage, ready for stripping, repairs, and sanding.

7 – We placed the wood parts individually on our "refinishing table," we prepared each piece for refinishing--stripped off the old finish, repaired damaged areas in the veneer, and sanded.

8 – A careful examination of the board and bridges confirms our selection of this piano for restoration--they're in excellent shape, requiring minimum repairs. The board still has good crown, no cracks, and bridges are solid.

9 – We stripped the old finish off the veneer surfaces of the case and we scraped the old varnish off the board and bridges.

10 – We sanded the bridges and soundboard, removed the old pinblock.

11 – We covered the piano with packing blankets and warmed the board area with low heat overnight.

12 – After overnight drying, two slight cracks appeared in the soundboard. We shimmed these cracks to ensure that the board would retain its integrity through refinishing.

13 – We masked off the edges of the soundboard and stained the interior of the rim with black stain.

14 – We scrubbed the plate.

15 – With the plate upside down on a worktable, we measured the pinblock in order to rough-cut a replacement.

16 – We cut the edge of the new pinblock which will rest against the pinblock at the angle of the plate edge.

17 – Using a router, we cut a large oval out of the new pinblock where it will be placed over an extra thickness of metal in the plate.

18 – We reduced the thickness of the new pinblock to precisely match the original pinblock's thickness.

19 – We rubbed chalk onto the plate's edge to show areas where the new pinblock needs to shaved.

20 – With the router, we rounded the edge of the pinblock which will be behind the fallboard in the piano.

21 – With the new pinblock blank in place, we lowered the plate into position so we could mark all the screw holes and tuning pin holes. We'll drill the tuning pin holes with the pinblock out of the piano.

22 – We drilled holes for the plate screws, and after installing the screws we pre-drilled the centers for each tuning pin hole.

23 – We marked the centers so they would be clearly visible when drilled in the drill press.

24 – We screwed the pinblock into the piano to ensure correct placement of the pinblock before drilling tuning pin holes.

25 – The largest tool in our shop is the floor-mounted drill press. It has a wide table which can support the full pinblock while tuning pin holes are drilled.

26 – Close-up of tuning pin hole drilling. The drill press is equipped with a lamp and an air nozzle for removing wood shavings during drilling.

27 – We agreed with the refinisher to bring him the cabinet, legs, lyre, lyre supports and end blocks--parts which we will need during restringing and action regulating work. After these parts have been refinished, we will bring him the lid, music rest and other parts for refinishing. The piano will be semi-gloss black.

28 – We removed all 88 original whippens and replaced them with new ones with the tails attached in the correct location-- after moving the rail so the new jacks would line up with the knuckles on two already installed hammers-and-shanks.

29 – With the first two odd-numbered hammers-and-shanks in place, we also found it necessary to move the regulating rail downwards by about 1/8". Now we could install the rest of the odd-numbered hammers-and-shanks, rough-regulating letoff with the hammers supported by the hammer stop rail at string height.

30 – We arranged the new parts in order on a side table, so we could continue the job of replacing the originals with new--hammers, shanks, back checks, and damper felts.

31 – We sanded the surfaces of the plate, cleaned them with wax remover, and applied two coats of primer.

32 – We applied a color coat to the plate, and after allowing sufficient drying time, we applied two "top coats" of clear urethane.

33 – We unmasked and cleaned the plate agraffes, and we installed a new image of the serial number under a thin brushed-on coat of clear urethane. Tomorrow, we will be picking up the refinished case, and we'll be able to continue assembly and restringing.

34 – Finally, the piano case and lyre has returned from the refinisher! Now we can move forward with installing the plate and restringing, etc.

35 – Back from the refinisher - the front side. Ebony semi-gloss can make a 70-year-old piano look as good as new!

36 – We resanded the outside edges of the soundboard where the refinisher had left some marks, and we applied two coats of sealer and two coats of semi-gloss urethane. When dry, we buffed the refinished surface.

37 – After cleaning and polishing the brass pedals and rods, we re-assembled the pedal lyre and installed in the piano..

38 – With new pedal bushings and lubricated center pins, the sustain mechanisms now works noiselessly.

39 – We reconditioned the "back action" on which the dampers will be installed, including tightening all screws, replacing worn felt, and lubricating the centers.

40 – We hoisted the plate above the piano in a perfectly horizontal plane, and carefully lowered it into the case without damaging the inside walls of the case.

41 – Before re-bolting the plate in place, we cleaned and polished all plate bolts.

42 – We installed new understring felts in preparation for re-stringing.

43 – Using the milar plastic templates made earlier, we marked the positions of the brass understring blocks.

44 – We installed the pinblock jack in the keybed to support the pinblock during restringing and wrapped the front edges of the piano case to protect the beautiful finish.

45 – We placed our restringing tools on a layer of styrofoam in the keybed for ready access during restringing.

46 – We used the stringing gauge prepared before destringing as a guide for string sizing during restringing. When this picture was taken, we had just completed restringing of the top treble section.

47 – We cleaned the damper wires, removed the old damper felts, sanded and black lacquered the damper blocks, and installed new damper felts. The dampers will be re-installed in the piano after the action has been regulated.

48 – We replaced all the whippens with new ones and also replaced all the backchecks with new ones.

49 – We prepared a sawing jig to cut all the hammer shanks at exactly the correct length.

50 – We installed odd-numbered shanks and hammers, spacing them exactly between the original even-numbered hammers. This will ensure that hammers are correctly aligned to the strings.

51 – Except for the main body of the keys, all action parts have been replaced with new ones.

52 – Action-regulating with new parts is a time-consuming process. We regulated hammer blow distance, letoff, drop, backchecks.

53 – We removed old damper felts, cleaned the damper wires and applied black stain and lacquer to the damper blocks. Next, we installed new damper felts.

54 – We replaced the backchecks with new ones.

55 – We used a home-made jig for cutting all shanks to identical length.

56 – We installed all odd-numbered shanks and hammers, spacing them evenly between the original even-numbered hammers. This will ensure alignment of hammers to the strings.

57 – Using our Jaras regulating system, we regulated the hammer height, blow distance, letoff and dip for each note.

58 – We removed the "stack" and keys from the keyframe, cleaned the pins and removed the original keycloth and underkey punchings.

59 – After polishing the pins, we installed new keycloth and underkey punchings, leaving the original paper punchings in place. Before re-assembling the action, we regulated the keyheight, keylevel, and dip.

60 – We re-installed the dampers, regulating the height of the damper levers to about 1/8" above top surface of the keys.

61 – We raised pitch and tuned the piano to A-440.

62 – Except for minor regulation issues and several tunings until the tuning is stable, this piano is almost ready for delivery! We're just waiting for the refinisher to have the lid and other case parts ready for us.

63 – We purchased a new artist bench with brass ferules matching the legs of the piano. The piano should be ready to "go home" in several days--just in time for Christmas.

64 – After the refinished case parts arrived, we couldn't wait to install them on the piano. This final assembly took about one day.

65 – The refinisher has done a great job with the fallboard, lid, and music rest. When these parts have been installed, we will be ready for delivery. . . just in time, during the week before Christmas!

65 – The refinisher has done a great job with the fallboard, lid, and music rest. When these parts have been installed, we will be ready for delivery. . . just in time, during the week before Christmas!