Milestone

[Ron Nossaman]

> Two soundboards at once (concurrently), or two soundboards in a row (one 
> after the other)? 

Overlapped. After the last of a given rib radius was glued on 
one board, the clamp moved to the next. The big radius had the 
most ribs, so the process slowed down considerably toward the 
end as I did something else, like chiseling glue squeeze out, 
for the 10-15 minutes between clamp moves. Another big radius 
clamp would have been really handy, but it's not like this 
comes up that often.


>If at the same time, you must have at least four or 
> six pneumatic presses - and the presses must have interchangeable cauls? 
> Yes?

Five pneumatic clamps, each with a fixed radius.


> I usually reserve a full day to rib a board - not that it takes that 
> long of course. I find that I do lots of other unrelated tasks while 
> glue dries, etc. I guess I value the luxury of having the time to take a 
> deep breath and concentrate on what I am doing - maybe I'm just paranoid 
> of screwing something up.

I was paying attention as hard as I could.


> How many times did you check to be sure that the right rib #1, etc. was 
> being glued to the correct panel????

I did all that beforehand. When I cut the ribs out, I lay them 
in the rim mortises as I go. When I'm done, I number them. As 
I'm locating them on the panel, I mark and number the position 
of the ends, so I don't turn the ribs wrong end to when I 
install them. With two pianos going (Fischer and Baldwin), the 
ribs were numbered B1, B2, F1, F2, etc. A partially sighted 
lame ape could have gotten them in the right place after all 
that, so I figured I had a pretty good chance.


> This sounds great. Congrats. I'm just trying to picture it. I'm afraid 
> of what mistakes I would make if I tried it!  ;-)
> 
> Terry Farrell

My only screw-up (that I've noticed so far) was hitting a long 
rib with the air pressure too quickly and having it bow 
sideways (it was pinned toward the ends) as it skated on the 
wet glue. I straightened it out, cleaned it up, and was a 
little more cautious with the valve after that, and there were 
no more surprises. You know, shop stuff.
Ron N