September 19, 2006 Bruce Clark

Boston Chapter PTG and Mason & Hamlin Presents Bruce Clark , Action Design Chapter Meeting 7:00 Technical Presentation 7:30 September 19, 2006
Bruce Clark's technical presentation at Mason & Hamlin was attended by more than 50 technicians from Mass, New Hampshire and Maine as well as North Bennett St. Students and Instructors. Our most harty thanks to Bruce Clark, Head Engineer of the Mason and Hamlin Company, for his time and effort and his willingness to share his many years of design work with us. Our thanks to Jamie Marks, Plant Manager for his effort in coordinating. Finally, Our thanks to Kirk Burgette, Owner of the Mason & Hamlin company, for providing his head engineer to us, making his time and facilities available out of a very busy production schedule and most important for his dedication to the fine traditions of the Mason and Hamlin Company.

Imagine you have been given a 7' grand piano of good quality. It has been rebuilt, new pinblock, soundboard, strings etc. It has been refinished. The workmanship is exellent. One challange, The piano has NO ACTION. To add to the challange, the maker of the piano has been out of business for 30 years. No original documentation, patterns or specifications of any kind are available. No one makes replacment parts. Bruce will take us through: Scale stick design. Key frame and key set design. Action spread design. Action leverage ratios. Just to add interest, we will presume we have some 50's era shank and flange we would like to use as well as a 20's era Chickering repitition. The piano we have is neither of these makes. The class will be 2 hours, fast paced as there is a lot of material to cover. Opportunities for questions during the presentation will be limited. Questions for a brief time after the presentation. Sponsored by Mason & Hamlin and the Boston Chapter of the PTG There is no fee for this class.