Broken Hammer

[bucky]

Hi, one of the middle hammers has broken on our piano, can anyone advise how to remove the hammer, once out I can repair no problem?
The piano is an upright piano

Thanks
Graham

[Colin Nicholson]

To remove the hammer butt (the part attached to the action rail that moves), firstly you will need to remove the mechanism and place it on a bench - however if its an old wooden framed action, it may need supporting if there are wooden pegs sticking out the bottom.

You then need to unclip the bridle tape from the bridle wire straddle - this is the red - tipped piece of leather with a narrow strip of cloth attached. The lever/ undercarriage section will then drop slightly and separate itself from the hammer butt. Take care removing this tape, as on old pianos they often break apart and crumble in your hand!! If it breaks, you will need a new tape.

The screw for the hammer flange will either be just behind the jack (so sometimes best to remove the lever section first from behind the action), then you will see the hammer flange screw. If its an old piano action, sometimes the hammer flanges are attached at the rear of the action frame, just above the lever flanges.

The broken hammer shank can be repaired in 2 ways. For an easier & cheaper repair, if the shank has broken "along the grain" (sort of broken diagonally), then you can glue it together and wrap cotton thread around the break, adding more glue to the thread. However if the break cannot be joined easily and the wood has "smashed against the grain" (showing lots of little bits of wood sticking up) - then the shank will need to be replaced, and you will have cut off the old shank, re-drill it to about 6mm, then knurl the end of the new shank to glue it in place.

Depending on the area of the break, if the hammer is angled slightly (overstrung piano), then this is a tricky repair that requires a pillar drill set at a specific angle to drill into the hammer head. If the shank is not too brittle, it might be removable using a hammer shank extracting tool - but I recommend if it gets to that stage, you are best to contact a piano repair guy to do a neat job.
Hope that helps.....

[bucky]

Thank you very much

[mdw]

Just call out a proper tech to sort it. Its 20 mins work and no other damage. If you start breaking other bits of the action the bill will go through the roof and if you diy it the action will be full of rubber bands, selotape and pencils that we techs just love to see in a piano action

[Colin Nicholson]

..... I have even seen blu-tac used to hold a lift rod in place on an over damped piano!! - didn't have any use except that maybe the owner could stick his music to it .... mmm