MMD subscribers,  As several of you know I sent my 5'8" Chickering
Ampico A to SAMA refinishers in old Mexico.  Overall I am extremely
pleased with the work.  However after the player mechanism was installed
it was discovered that the damper raising dowel had been left out by
SAMA.  To replace this dowel from the bottom basically meant two or
three days of work, from the top one or two days.

To help you visualize this problem, the hole for the dowel is under the
damper rail and back in about one inch.  There is only about 5/8 inch
clearance between the keybed and the damper rail.  Physical limitations
prevent one from bending a 3/8 x 1 inch dowel.  So by email I sent
this problem to Bob Taylor.  He got back the next day and said he had
a 15-minute solution to this horrible problem and that I was not the
first one to whom it had happened.  Well, it took an hour and the
efforts of a fine piano technician and me.

Bob's suggestion was to take a 3/8" screen door spring and cut a piece
to the desired length bend it and slip it in.  Once the spring was
in the hole it would of course straighten out and be as rigid as the
dowel.  In practice we found that we could not maintain the curvature
of the spring while attempting to insert it in the hole.  We solved
this problem by inserting a piece of heavy gauge insulated copper wire
inside the spring and bending it to the desired curvature.  Once in
the hole we simply pulled the wire out.  It worked beautifully.
Thanks, Bob, for the great suggestion.

The Ampico A player mechanism was restored by Yousuf Wilson and I can
without reservation say that I don't think any one could have done
a better job.  The instrument performs so beautifully it is addictive.

Tom Hutchinson