The Cost of a Piano Tuning

The first question on most people's minds when it comes to getting their piano tuned is "How much does a tuning cost?"  The short answer is that most tuners charge between $100 and $150 for a basic tuning.  However, those numbers really don't tell the whole story .

If it has been more than a few years since a piano was last tuned, there is a good chance that the piano will need a pitch raise.  This procedure involves roughly increasing the tension on all of the strings in the piano to approximately the correct pitch (or slightly above) before fine tuning.  A pitch raise increases the amount of time required for a tuning and most tuners will charge an extra $25-$50 for it.

A piano tuner might also run into broken strings or issues with the piano action that need to be fixed for the piano to play properly.  While many piano technicians wont charge extra for a few minutes of repair or regulation work, any strings or parts that need to be replaced will add to the parts cost of your bill as well as potentially adding an hourly fee for labor.  

If there are no piano tuners in your area, you may have to pay a travel fee to get a tuner from the nearest town/city to come to you.

All this is just to say that the cost of a piano tuning is often on a case-by-case basis and you should communicate clearly with your  piano tuner to make sure you understand what they will be billing you for.

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Let Off Rail Repair a.k.a. How to Remove Broken Screws from Wood

Here's another post in the Milton Player Piano series.  I attempted to adjust the hammer let off by turning these regulating screws, but, instead of turning, the tops of the screws just snapped off.  I think this was caused by several factors.  One, I think that the screws are simply made of a weak metal.  Perhaps it was never hardened, or it is just a poor alloy.  Either way, it breaks way too easily.  Two, either the rust on the screws or a swelling of the wood has caused the screws to bind in their threaded holes.  So, I've decided to remove all of these regulating screws and let off buttons and replace them with new ones.

A few broken and bent regulating screws

After removing the let off buttons from the screws (I just break them off with a pliers since I'm going to replace them anyway), use a soldering iron to heat up the end of the screw. Keep the tip in contact with the screw for at least 30 seconds.  This heating of the screw will loosen the bond that the screw and the wood have formed and hopefully allow us to twist the remaining piece of the screw out of the wood.

Breaking the wooden buttons off of the screws. These will be replaced with new buttons later.

Heating the screw with a soldering iron

Grab the screw firmly with a set of linesman's pliers or a vice grip, and gently rotate it left and right to try to loosen it.  You should be able to feel the screw "click" back and forth while you are turning it.  If you try to just unscrew it straight away, you will likely break the screw.  Once the screw has loosened significantly from the back and forth motion, unscrew it all the way to remove it from the wood.

If the soldering iron doesn't do the job, you may have to get the screw even hotter by very carefully using a propane torch or similar tool.  Only use this on screws that have enough material sticking out of the wood to allow you to keep the flame from igniting the wood (it may scorch a bit, which is fine).  If the screw is broken off on both sides of the wood rail, do not use a flame.

After the broken screws have been removed, go through and heat all of the remaining screws in the rail for at least 30 seconds with the soldering iron.  Then, use a drill with a quick-change adapter on low speed to remove the screws.  I like to leave every third screw so that when I am installing the new screws I can turn them in to the same depth as the old screws to minimize the amount of adjusting I'll have to do later.  It is always good to leave an original as a reference when replacing these kinds of things.

Removing the screws with a cordless drill

Every third screw is left in the rail

The next picture shows some of the scorching that I was talking about from the propane torch, as well as one screw which ended up breaking off on both sides of the wooden rail.  This screw is no longer removable with the previous method and calls for more drastic measures.

Screw broken off on both sides of the rail

Drilling two holes next to the screw

The idea with this repair is to drill a couple small holes adjacent to the broken screw, pry the screw into the new hole, pull it out, and then plug and redrill the original hole.  All of the drilling for this process should be done on a drill press to ensure the holes are perfectly perpendicular to the rail.

After the holes are drilled, push the broken screw into the new space with a screwdriver.  Once the screw is there, it can be removed with a tweezers or with a small punch.

Holes drilled next to the screw

The screw has been pushed into the hole

The broken screw has been removed

Now that the screw has been removed, the threaded hole must be repaired so that I can thread a new regulating screw in.  I will be using a method described in Mario Igrec's "Pianos Inside Out".  The method is to drill a hole perpendicular to the original hole and plug it with a hardwood dowel pin.  The reason for drilling the hole perpendicular and not just straight though the original hole is that the grain of the dowel pins runs along their length, and the repair will be less likely to split if the dowel is put in perpendicularly.   I used 1/4" dowel pins for this repair.

Drilling a 1/4" hole perpendicularly through the rail

The 1/4" hole and dowewl pin

Once the hole has been drilled, coat a 1/4" dowel pin with wood glue and tap it into the rail with a rubber mallet.  If the pin is very tight, you may need to hold the rail over an open vise or something similar that will support on both sides of the pin, but not directly under it.  This will allow you to safely tap the pin through until it extends out the other side of the rail.

Once the glue has dried, I use a fine-toothed pullsaw to cut the pin flush with the rail.

Cutting off the excess

The resulting repair

The final part of this repair is to predrill the pin where the original screw was.  The drill bit should be as thick as the  body of the screw so that the screw goes in easily and the threads still have enough material to grab onto.

Predrilling the screw hole

A screw threaded through the new hole

At this point, all of the screws have been loosened or removed and the rail is ready for the new regulating screws and buttons.

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Key Bushing Replacement

The key bushings of my Milton Player Piano had pretty much all fallen out, resulting in noisy keys that wobbled from side to side.  In order to recreate a smooth motion of the keys without sideways play, the balance rail bushings as well as the front rail bushings need to be replaced.  Each key interacts with two pins: the balance rail pin and the front rail pin.  The balance rail pin is in the center of the key, and allows the key to pivot forward and back.  The front rail pin is under the front of the key and guides the key to move in a vertical motion.  Both of these pins glide along felt bushings that are glued to the key.

To remove any bushings that haven't already fallen out, place a damp rag over the bushings and steam them with a hot clothes iron (see my post on keytop replacement for pictures of this).  Immediately after steaming, the key mortises need to be sized by allowing them to dry with an appropriate key mortise caul inserted.  I buy these cauls from Spurlock Specialty Tools.  There are several different sizes of caul that each corresponds to a specific size of pin that the keys pivot on.  Be sure to measure the front and balance rail pins with a micrometer in order to know which cauls to buy.

Front rail mortises with mortise sizing cauls in place

After the keys have fully dried, pull out the mortise sizing cauls.  All of the mortises should now be a uniform size and ready for bushings.  Before installing new bushings, I also ordered the .146" bushing cauls from Spurlock Tools (which match my .146" front and balance rail pins), as well as a few different thicknesses of Key Bushing Cloth from Schaff Piano Supply Company.

.146" Key Bushing Caul

Before gluing anything in, push a bit of each thickness of bushing cloth into a mortise to see which one is the right fit.  The caul and cloth should push snugly into the mortise, but should not take any significant amount of force.  This step is crucial because too thick of a cloth will cause the keys to bind on their pins and too thin of a cloth will cause the keys to wobble side to side.

After I've picked the correct thickness of bushing cloth, I apply a bit of glue to both sides of the key mortise with a small brush.  I use PVC-E glue, but a PVA glue like Titebond will work, or if you want to get really serious, use hot hide glue.

PVC-E glue applied to the sides of the mortises

If using PVC-E or PVA glue, work in sections of 5-10 keys at a time.  If using hot hide glue, only work on 1 or 2 keys at a time.  This is due to the fast set time of hot hide glue vs the others.

Once I have applied the glue to a section of keys, I lay the bushing cloth across the mortises, push the cloth into the mortise, and cut it in the center using my Bushmaster tool from Pianotek Supply Co.  This tool does a wonderful job setting the depth of the bushing cloth in the mortise as well as making a clean cut of the cloth.

The Bush master from Pianotek Supply. The blade on the end is normally recessed into the handle. Pushing on the black plunger causes the blade to emerge.

The tool is first pushed into the mortise with the blade recessed to set the depth of the bushing cloth.  The plunger can then be pressed to cut the cloth.

After the tool has been removed, push in a bushing caul to clamp the cloth against the sides of the mortise while the glue dries.  After you've finished this section of keys, set it aside while the glue dries, and begin on the next section.

All bushing cauls in place

Once the glue has dried, the final step is to trim the bushing cloth flush with the key by using a razor blade. Once all of the bushings have been trimmed, the keys are ready to be reinstalled in the piano.  If any of the keys bind on their pins, a gentle easing of the bushings my be necessary.  This is accomplished by gently squeezing the bushings with a pair of wide mouth pliers.  Here is a great video on easing key bushings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKCy8s4H9GI

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Keytop Replacement

A few posts ago, I wrote about a Milton player piano that I had acquired.  The keys were not in the best shape; the front and balance rail bushings were falling out, the key buttons were coming unglued, and most of the keytops had come off or were just barely hanging on.

I ordered a full set of Gloss White Vagias Plastic Keytops with short heads from Schaff Piano Supply, as well as a set of 3 1/2" Gloss Plastic Sharp Keytops for the black keys. It is important to get the right length of keytop to minimize the amount of sanding and filing of the keytops later on.

You can see the original ivory keytops above.  They look terrible and need to be removed.  The black ebony keytops have already fallen off.  To remove the remaining ivories, loosen the glue by covering them with a damp cloth and steaming them with a hot clothing iron.  Keep the iron moving and steam each area for 5 seconds or so. 

When the glue is adequately  loosened, the keytops should pry off the keys with very little effort.  If the glue is still holding, re-steam the keys to reduce the risk of prying any wood chunks off with the keytops.  For the black keys, repeat the same process, except steam the sides of the keytops instead of the top.

After all of the old keytops have been removed, the keytops need to be prepped for the new keytops.  This means making the top surface of the keys flat, as well as reducing the thickness of the keys if the new keytops are thicker than the old.

I use a table saw to accomplish both of these tasks at once.  Because the old ivories are significantly thinner than the new plastic keytops, I set the fence to remove about a millimeter from the tops of the white keys.  I clamped a block to the back of the fence to act as a depth stop, as well as a block to the table to mark the fence adjustment, which allows me to move the fence away after the key has been trimmed, and precisely move the fence back after the key has been pulled away from the blade.

Raw key after removing the keytop

Key after facing on the table saw

After trimming all of the white keys, I make sure all of the keys are flat by gluing some sandpaper to a precision ground surface (I use a slab of marble countertop) and sanding down any irregularities.

The keys are now all prepped and ready for the new keytops.  I use contact cement to attach the keytops.  Contact cement works by brushing some cement onto both surfaces, and then waiting some time for it to partially cure before clamping the two surfaces together.

The front ends of the white keytops are rounded and are meant to overhang the end of the keys by a few millimeters.  In order to get a consistent amount of overhang, I use a simple jig made of a couple coins and a bit of cardboard.  One of these days I will make a nicer jig out of wood, but this works for now.

Cement applied to key and keytop

Place the white keytop on the key with the end butted up against the gauge.  Press down firmly and then clamp the key firmly in a woodworking vise to set the ketyop.  Repeat this process with the black keys, but just align them visually, no need for any kind of jig.

After the cement has dried the keytop may need a bit of sanding or filing to make the edges flush with the key body.  Do this carefully, as it is easy to quickly ruin the appearance of your new keytops.

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Hammer Spring Replacement ("Sticky Key")

A neighbor was getting rid of this wonderful little Kohler Campbell console piano a few weeks ago.  Overall, it was in really good shape and just too good of a deal to pass up.  We picked it up, brought it home, and I proceeded to tinker with it for a little while to find any problems.

The only information that the former owner was able to give me was that there were some "sticky keys".  This means that a key will produce a sound the first time it is struck, but will not sound with any following strikes.  This is probably the single most common issue that people come across in their pianos, not only because people lump several different symptoms under the label "sticky key", but also because there are probably over a dozen different issues that can cause a sticky key.  

It turned out that the only major problem with this piano was that nearly all of the hammer return springs had corroded and broken.  These springs only exist in upright pianos (their role is fulfilled by gravity in grand pianos).  Their function is to assist the hammer in falling back to its rest position after striking the string.  If they are broken or disengaged, the hammers will not consistently return after striking.  This will cause missed strikes during which a key will be pressed, but no sound will be produced.  

Hammer return spring circled

Above is the piano action as it should look, with all hammer return springs intact.  This photo was taken after I had finished repairing the springs.   Below to the right, you can see how the spring rail looked originally with all of the broken springs still on it.  Below to the left, you can see the piano action with the spring rail and hammer rest rail removed.

Piano action with hammer return spring rail and hammer rest rail removed

Hammer spring rail

For this repair, I needed to remove the spring rail from the rest of the piano action, but in order to access the screws that hold it on, I first needed to remove the hammer rest rail.  This rail is held in place by four steel pins with 90 degree bends in them.  Three of the bends point one direction and one points the other direction.  Once the oddball pin is removed from the action, the remaining three pins will all slide out in the same direction and the hammer rest rail can be removed.

Apparently in some pianos the oddball pin is spring-loaded or has some other method of easy removal.  This piano, however, has no such device, and so the action bracket that the pin is inserted into must be pulled away from the pin. There are two screws on the lower end of the action bracket that, if removed, allow the bracket to be pivoted enough for the hammer rest rail pin to be removed.

Hammer rest rail showing the four pins that hold it in place

Opposite facing pins

After removing the hammer rest rail, the four screws that hold the spring rail in place can be removed, and the rail can be slid sideways out of the action.

First, I need to remove all of the old springs from the rail.  There is a hole through the rail that the tail of each spring is fed through.  The tail is then bent sharply downward by a machine (which leaves the two parallel indentations) into a slot which holds the end of the spring tightly.  I don't own one of these machines, so when I install new springs, I will be making a modification to this rail so that I can install them tight enough.

First, I remove the strip of felt that is covering the ends of the spring tails.  The glue holding the felt down can be loosened by applying some diluted wallpaper remover to the felt and allowing it to sit for a half hour or so.  After removing the felt,  pry the tails of the springs out of their slots by using a sewing needle and a small screwdriver.  Then, grasp the coil of a spring with a small needlenose pliers and use the pliers as a lever to pull the spring out of the rail.

An intact spring, one with a broken end, and one with a broken tail

Hammer spring carnage

New spinet springs

There are several different lengths of these springs, so make sure you buy the correct length for your piano.  My piano is a console, so I bought the "spinet" length springs.  The measurement you need is from the coil to the end of the curvy part.

The modification that I mentioned earlier involves drilling an extra hole for each spring through the spring rail.  Some piano manufacturers make spring rails that already have two holes per spring like this.  The advantage is that the second hole will allow me to pull the tails really tightly into the wood with a pair of pliers, and eliminates the need for the specialized "parallel indents" machine.

To make the holes, I clamped a drill bit just slightly thicker than my spring tails into a pin vise.  I then inserted the pin vise into my drill press.  The reason for the pin vise is that the chuck on my drill press can't clamp onto something as small as this drill bit.  The slots in the rail give me a nice little guide for the drill bit.  I'm aiming to go through the rail right at the top of where the strip of felt was glued down.

After I've drilled all 88 holes, I can start installing my new springs.  I insert the tail through the rail, and use a wire-bending pliers to create a 180 degree bend in the tail.  The tail can then be pushed through the hole I just made until it pokes out of the same side of the rail as the body of the spring.   I then grab the tail with a set of linesman pliers and, using a lever motion, pull any slack out of the spring until the coil is nice and snug up against its felt.

The springs will tend to need a bit of manual aligning and straightening after they are all installed.  After they are all aligned, go through and snip the tails as close to the rail as possible.

The finished installation

When all of the springs are on the rail, remember to glue your strip of felt back onto the rail (which I forgot in the picture above), and carefully slide the rail back into the action without catching the springs on any other action parts.  Reinstall the screws that hold it in and reinstall the hammer rest rail.

The springs will probably need to be bent toward or away from the hammers a bit to make the action feel normal again.  I try to make them so that they are just barely putting any pressure on the hammers when at rest.  If they are applying too much pressure, the hammers will return very quickly, but the action will feel very heavy and cumbersome.  Too little pressure and hammer return will be inconsistent and the springs may "click" against the hammers when the note is played.

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