Virtual Tour Step 7

The Action Work
The Whippens

When this project was underway, I had no Idea I would be putting it on the web. In fact I did not own a computer at the time so I'm sorry to say that the pictures remaining in these final steps of the piano restoration are not appropriate for this purpose but they are all I have.

Here you can see the beginning of the action restoration. The whippens are being removed and will be restored with the appropriate action cloths, felts and bushings. The whippens are special in player pianos for they not only transfer force from the keys to the hammer butts but they must also transfer the force from the player mechanism to the hammer butts as well. With this in mind it was impossible to buy a replacement set for this piano so they all had to be restored.

After the jack let off rail was set aside each whippen was removed with the jack assembly in place. Once all the whippens were removed they were then restored by replacing the action cloth where the dowel capstans and the player fingers contact the whippen. The old back check felt was removed and new installed. All the jack flanges were separated from the whippens and re-glued. All the jack springs were replaced. Finally the felt on the back of the jacks were replaced and all the whippens were set aside until the next step was completed.

Notice the hammers left and right of the action breaks have been removed and shipped to a factory in New York where new hammers, shanks and butts were manufactured. Also at this time the white keys were sent to New York to have new key tops and key bushings installed.

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