Current Projects

Restore on Contract

45" Cable Upright #282614 (1928)
Exotic light wood veneer cabinet. Built in 1928. Restored by Ray’s Piano Service, 2009

IMPROVEMENTS INCLUDED:

Rebuild—Dismantle. Remove strings, pins, plate. Replace bass bridge. Repair and refinish sound board and treble bridges. Re-install plate. Install new strings and pins. Rebuild pedal mechanisms.

Recondition Action—Clean.  Install new hammers, shanks, butts, whippens, and damper felts.

Complete Regulation—Install new underkey punchings. Make adjustments to ensure that piano plays like new: key height, key levelling, hammer blow distance, lost motion, letoff,  sustain, spoons. Tune to A-440

SCHEDULE:

Picked up from Bellingham, WA: March 21, 2009

Dismantle, order parts, repair board and bridges, restring: April, 2009

Recondition action, complete regulation, first tunings: May-June, 2009

Deliver: July 11, 2009

1928 Cable Upright "Before"

1 – Upon arrival in our shop, we carefully examined the piano to verify our original evaluation. . .

1928 Cable Upright "After"

49 – Ready for delivery! Since refinishing was not included in this restoration project, there will be no change to the piano's exterior appearance--except for nicely cleaned keytops and polished pedals. But it is now a great musical instrument that should provide reliable service for years to come!

1928 Cable Upright 45"
Pictures of the Restoration Process
taken in our shop:

1 – Upon arrival in our shop, we carefully examined the piano to verify our original evaluation. All panels are a light-colored exotic wood veneer.

2 – A beautiful woodcarving adorns each front corner post. . .

3 – . . . and there is another beautiful wood carving in the middle of the music rest. We'll take good care of this piano during restoration, because we won't be refinishing. . .

4 – We removed the panels and keybed, placing them on our parts rack for storage during restoration.

5 – We placed the action on our workbench.

6 – We removed the keys. These will also be stored during restoration.

7 – With all the panels, keybed, and pedal board removed, we have access to the strings and plate. We placed the piano on its back on our "tilter" for destringing.

8 – We removed the bass strings and pins, and we packed the bass strings for shipment to the stringmaker.

9 – We removed sample hammers, shanks, butts, and whippens from the action. The parts supplier will match these to ensure that proper replacements are used in reconditioning the action.

10 – We scraped all the old finish off the bridges and the soundboard and sanded these surfaces.

11 – Since there is a deep crack along the bass bridge pin holes, we will need to replace the bass bridge.

12 – We prepared a pattern of the bass bridge pin holes on a piece of milar, which we will use to make a replacement bridge cap.

13 – We made a jig out of 1/2-inch hardwood, to be used when cutting out the old bass bridge cap.

14 – With blocks of wood of correct thickness underneath the jig, we used a router to cut away a 1/2-inch thickness from the bass bridge..

15 – After cutting a replacement bridge cap out of maple wood, we applied glue and installed temporary washers and screws to clamp-and-glue the new bridge cap in place.

16 – We replaced the temporary screws with wood dowel and marked the locations of the bridge pin holes on the new bridge cap.

17 – We routed an angled edge on the bridge cap, applied liquid graphite to the bridge cap, and we applied sealer and spar urethane on the soundboard and bridges.

18 – We scrubbed the plate and cleaned the pins with a wire brush.

19 – Using the overhead winch, we repositioned the plate into the piano.

20 – With the plate in position, we rebolted it into the piano. Then we installed the action posts.

21 – We installed new bass bridge pins.

22 – We restrung the tenor section of the piano, using the guide prepared before destringing to ensure correct string guages.

23 – Our restringing tools--wire cutter, stringing crank, tuning pin punch and large hammer, tuning hammer and string lifter, small hammer and punch, needle-nose pliers.

24 – After restringing the entire treble section, we installed the pressure bar and "chipped" all strings to pitch.

25 – We restrung the bass section.

26 – We removed the hammer rail and the old dampers from the action, exposing all other parts for easy replacement.

27 – We replaced all the whippens, aligned and spaced them to the butts.

28 – We replaced the odd-numbered hammer-shank-butt assemblies.

29 – Using the even-numbered shanks and hammers for positioning, we installed the first half of the new butts and shanks.

30 – When half of the hammers were installed, we replaced the even-numbered butts and installed new shanks in them.

31 – We let the hyde glue on the newly installed hammers dry overnight.

32 – We re-installed the keybed and the lower cross-beam..

33 – We dismantled the pedal board, cleaned and polished the pedals, cleaned the wood and applied sealer, and reassembled the parts, using new felt punchings and lubricant.

34 – We re-installed the reconditioned pedal board and also replaced the casters.

35 – We assembled the new whippens to complete the front of the action.

36 – We removed the old damper felts. cleaned the levers, re-installed the damper levers and glued new damper pads in place.

37 – We cleaned the keybed, re-installed the action in the piano, and returned the keys one at time, ensuring correct keyheight, using new underkey punchings.

38 – We re-installed a few keys at each end of the keyboard and used them as guides while installing the rest.

39 – Before installing each key, we sanded the sides near the fronts to remove grime that had gathered after years of playing.

40 – With a straight edge spanning the installed keys at the two ends to guide the heights, we installed the other underkey punchings and keys.

41 – The straight edge is our guide for installing paper punchings of varying thickness on the center rail pins to bring the keyheights to the exactly the correct height.

42 – Similarly, we used the straight edge as guide for regulating the heights of the black keys.

43 – We used a 13/32" keydip block for regulating keypdip in the white keys and a special guage for regulating keydip in the black keys.

44 – We bent the backcheck wires to the correct position for checking the hammers at 5/8" from the strings.

45 – We installed the bass damper pads with the action in the piano, and regulated the sustain system as well as the spoons to ensure that dampers lift when hammers have travelled half the distance from rest position to the strings.

46 – Especially on the angled keys the felt bushings at the center rail pins had worn considerably, resulting in noisy wobbling of the keys. We installed new key bushings.

47 – A couple of capstans were off center in their alignment with the whippen tails. We moved these capstans and inserted paper spacers in the whippen flanges to correct this problem.

48 – We tuned the piano several times until tuning stability was achieved, and then waited a week for doing a final pre-delivery tuning. One after-delivery tuning is included in the project, and the piano will need to be tuned every 6 months for about two years.