This is the proper way to lubricate the pins. Slow and methodical. Many would be tempted to just quickly slather on a bunch of wd-40 or something but don't do it. Take your time as Howard demonstrates.
@@Photologistic It does work (For a moment). However, it's not going to be as long lasting and will likely leave a oily residue that will attract dirt and dust which will make it even worse than when it started.
@@64bitpianistI got a used piano and the keypins were lubricated with something that left a thick and sticky brownish grease. I would strongly advise to only use proper lube.
dust hair hairpin a dead spider and finally in the base of the piano ...what looks like a live bullet ! I finally got the action out and am busy cleaning pins. I have ordered two lubricants locally to try FINISH LINE DRY LUBE TEFLON PLUS and WD401810036 specialist dry ptfe in spray form...will keep you posted on results
I'm replacing all the felt. What about the paper washers? They are not consistent. Some green and some brown. Some keys have 3-4, some none. Were they added later to even out the felt? Are they original?
Thank you Howard for these videos, they are really helpful to me. I live outside of the USA and could you please recommend a good substitute for Protek CLP. Is it true that a 50/50 solution of distilled water and denatured alcohol will work. Thanks again for your videos!
Thanks for this very useful video. As I live in Europe and don’t have access to the lubricant shown in the video, I wonder what lubricant I should use… any ideas, suggestions welcome…
Hello Howard, your videos are so explicative and good timed that is imposible to miss a detail. Thank you so much for that professional work! I have a question about lubricantion. Recently I had my vertical tuned up and after some playing I realized there were strange sounds coming from the mechanism of all keys. I found when the jack comes out under the hammer nut, it rubbs a piece of leather attached to the nut. The problem is that it wasn't producing any noise before the tuning up. Now you can hear a squeaky noise (kinda rubber noise) when the jack comes out. The technician who tuned my piano says it is lack of lubricantion. He is going to put some vaseline in it. My question is: is it allowed to do that or the problem is something that went imbalanced after the tuning. Thank you very much.🙂 PD I live in San Jose, Costa Rica. 70% RH and 70°F
In most cases noises that you hear in the action aren't caused by tuning as tuning is just adjusting the string tension. It could be that once the piano was in tune, the noises were more noticeable because you weren't so distracted by the out of tuneness of the piano. It's hard to say what the best solution is without being able to see exactly what is causing the noise.
@@howardpianoind OK Howard, thanks a lot. I know it is difficult to see what the problem is .However the specific question is that if it is right to lubricate with vaseline, the leather attached to the hammer nut when it produces noise with the friction of the jack. Thanks
@@howardpianoind Thank you Howard, I also thought it wasn't a good idea to use vaseline.I think it would entrap in the leather making it stiff and sticky over the time.👍
Hi, what can I do when one of the keys does not play as loud, it is not any harder to press it and it comes back like the others, but i need to hit it harder to make the sound. Thank you, Eva
It’s possible that it needs some regulation adjustments such as reducing lost motion or adjusting the letoff distance. It could also be due to tight action parts.
thanks howard your videos are so helpful .I recently bought a used yamaha upright and have it in bits at the moment.Lots of muck under the keys...even a large hairgrip , I dont know how it got there.Ive watched your piano tuning course and have ordered the tools.Excellent thanks
Hi John, Thanks for watching. Yes, it is not uncommon to find at least a lot of dust under the keys and often times you'll find other items such as coins, paper clips, stickers among many other items. I even found a very large mouse nest under the keys in one piano.
hello Howard, I did all the procedures explained here, I bought the product from your store, thank you for the video, it has a lot of improvement, however, I can still hear like a typewriting sensation and noise. Should I need to lubricate the hammers now? Do you think that will fix, or it is what it is and I can get a Kimbal baby grand from the '80s to get better?
If there is a clicking sound, it could be due to loose hammer flange screws or loose whippen flange screws. These need to be tightened from time to time.
@@howardpianoind Thank you, my kid also says they still a little sticky. I am going to all procedures to get them smooth, amazingly I have a super small baby grand with a really warm and nice sound, is just a shame that the action response is not so great.
Thanks Howard for sharing your knowledge. I have rust on some pins on my kawai grand. It is neccessary to remove the action or can this be done with the action inside the piano?
No, unfortunately I don't know of a lubricant similar to Protek CLP that can be shipped internationally. Though if you polish the pins up real good and use the PTFE powder on the bushings you should have fairly good results.
Hi Howard, could you tell me please, as soften hard and heavy piano keys? I recently gave the piano, but has this deficiency, I much tired to especially touch the thumb, sometimes I do not want to play because I unmotivated, and I'd rather do it on my digital keyboard, I've played different pianos but none was so hard like this. There will be a solution? I appreciate much you answer me. Thank you!
Hi Odilia, Yes, there are different things that can be done to make the touch of the piano lighter and not so heavy. The first thing to do would be to determine what is causing the heavy touch. There are several things that could be the cause. Unfortunately there isn't one thing to try before determining which thing is causing the problem. It could be tight action parts and it could be that the action geometry is setup to provide a heavy touch. It also could be that the damper timing is too early.
Thanks for the answer (do not understand English very well, so there are parts of your videos do not understand, it's a shame, I see you have interesting things. To write I use the translator) once the piano installed at home with the first pitch only some keys were harder while others were too soft and sounded very strong, had keys jutting more level, some remained stuck, I suggested to clean the inside that could be due to dirt, actually when I opened it there were tons dirt, dust and lint, I cleaned it carefully, I took the opportunity to level the draft of the by putting keys below the felt washers washers paper, has been perfectly level, all keys sounds the same, no longer get stuck, but now all are hard. I think this has to do with the last reason you suggest, may the damping time is too early. how do I solve it? many thanks!
Hi Odiilia, It sounds like your piano needs quite a bit of work. The reason some keys are harder to press than others could be caused by some adjustments that need to be made to the action. Yes, if there is a lot of dirt in the piano it would be good to clean it out, but that won't provide as much difference as the adjustments that need to be made. I'm sorry that you're not able to understand the videos as well because of the English. A book would be helpful, but the ones that I know of are only available in English as well.
I wouldn't recommend WD-40 or silicone. I'm not aware of another lubricant that would do the same thing. For the keypins, if you polish them, this will go a long way in achieving the results. Also the PTFE powder will help the process on the bushings.
if you ever need to lubricate your key pins, what i do is just replace the felts inside the actual key and before i put them in i rub some powdered graphite on the felt itself. it lasts a long time and works very well with polished pins. and as a bonus, dry lubricants dont attract contamination like wet lubricants do
Thank you for this great and informative video tutorial. Would you happen to know approximately how many applications you could get from one ounce of the Teflon powder? Also, would using three in one oil on the key pins be okay? I know that you recommend the Protek CLP, but I was wondering if you think three and one oil might work in a pinch and not cause any other issues down the road. Thank you in advance!
One ounce of the teflon powder goes quite a ways. It would probably do about a dozen applications on the whole piano. I wouldn't recommend using the 3-in-1 oil. The Protek CLP is a dry film lubricant. The oil would just gunk things up.
@@howardpianoind thank you very much for the reply. I have learned so much from your videos. You are truly a remarkable person for sharing your expertise with so many others. The knowledge that you have about piano tech and the way that you presented is truly an art. I would say that you are something of a piano tech celebrity!
At this time we don't have all of our videos on DVD, but we have two DVD's available. One is of our 8 part "How to Tune A Piano" series and the other is a collection of the videos we have on vertical piano regulation. These can be found in our online store: howardpianoindustries.com/books-and-videos/
Terrific video! Say, I ordered Protek Prolube (same size bottle but w/spray cap). Is that same/similar as your Protek CLP, would you know? Thanks for such an informative video!
ProLube is used in different areas of the piano such as lubricating the grand keybed, but it can be used on keypins like I demonstrate in this video. You just wouldn't want to use the ProLube on the action centers.
I have a soviet Ukraina upright piano made in the 70's and some of the keys move hard and are a little uneven. Could it be from dirt? The piano hasn't been cleaned in a long while...
There are a few different things that could cause this. It could be that the action parts are sluggish because of felt swelling in the flanges, or it could be that the key pins need to be polished as there may be some corrosion on the keypins.
This regulating button is for adjusting the height of the repetition lever. You can adjust this to make sure the top of the jack is in the right relation the the top of the repetition lever. I will be doing a video on this adjustment soon.
My balance beam felts were so beat up that I had to replace them all and the paper cardboard punchings disintegrated at my touch. How to I replace the paper punchings from scratch when you don't know which key pin had what or even which keys needed them. This is literaly a 1950s Story and Clark upright JUNKED piano my son and I are trying to restore. Yes we know it isn't worth the cost but it is worth the effort to see if we can reclaim something beautiful and functional out of a piece of junk
If you find what key height woks best for the piano, then set the key level for all of the keys at that height. Setting the key height is part of the overall regulation process.
I know this video is old, but it would really be beneficial if you could spell out the bottles of assorted fluid that you use in this, and your other videos, in your description, like you started to do here. Up to this point in your piano playlist, which has been great, by the way, every one of the bottles you used have been washed in a bath of light so bright that I can't read the label, and even though you say what the bottle is, some of the names are a little auditorily ambiguous (PVC, or PVCE? Don't know: haven't googled yet) ....except for this ONE video which ironically showcases, very plainly, a bottle of Protek, an odd spelling you couldn't get phonetically, that can't be shipped due to federal law. You even added it in the description! The ILLEGAL one of the two you mentioned in this video. lol. I'm not trying to be cynical, I'm just laughing at the irony here: I can't order any of the innocuous ones because I can't figure out how they should be spelled, but I can very easily order a copy of a bottle of lubricant that could put me on a federal watchlist! XD But in all seriousness, adding the names of the bottles you use in the videos to the description would be a big help. Thanks for reading.
The powder in the jar is PTFE Powder, also known as Teflon Powder. The glue that I use in some of the videos is PVC-E glue. And Protek CLP can be shipped in the USA, it just can’t be shipped internationally.
Hello i am Laurent eze piano tuner living in Yaoundé Cameroun in Africa So i use baby powder After cleaning the Key pins and so to prevent humidity in the piano every body could use what IS possible except oil on the piano thank you for the video
Thank you Howard!!!!!!! Thanks to your videos I was able to clean and lubricate my Yamaha Baby Grand!
This is the proper way to lubricate the pins. Slow and methodical. Many would be tempted to just quickly slather on a bunch of wd-40 or something but don't do it. Take your time as Howard demonstrates.
Yeah, but maybe WD40 or white silicone could work also.
@@Photologistic It does work (For a moment). However, it's not going to be as long lasting and will likely leave a oily residue that will attract dirt and dust which will make it even worse than when it started.
@@64bitpianistI got a used piano and the keypins were lubricated with something that left a thick and sticky brownish grease. I would strongly advise to only use proper lube.
great way to spend a Monday. I took out a large and scary dust mite colony.
My balance rail pins are rusted at the tips. What would you recommend for this?
I've got some beyond repair rusted pins, how do I replace them with new ones? Is it just pull out the old one and slide a new one in?
Do you have a video talking about which felt size is appropriate?
dust hair hairpin a dead spider and finally in the base of the piano ...what looks like a live bullet ! I finally got the action out and am busy cleaning pins.
I have ordered two lubricants locally to try
FINISH LINE DRY LUBE TEFLON PLUS and WD401810036 specialist dry ptfe in spray form...will keep you posted on results
john Bgood and? How’d it go
Whoa man. A live bullet to be triggered by a piano stroke. Sounds like the setup to a murder mystery novel.
I'm replacing all the felt. What about the paper washers? They are not consistent. Some green and some brown. Some keys have 3-4, some none. Were they added later to even out the felt? Are they original?
Thank you Howard for these videos, they are really helpful to me. I live outside of the USA and could you please recommend a good substitute for Protek CLP. Is it true that a 50/50 solution of distilled water and denatured alcohol will work. Thanks again for your videos!
Thanks for this very useful video. As I live in Europe and don’t have access to the lubricant shown in the video, I wonder what lubricant I should use… any ideas, suggestions welcome…
helpful vid thanx
I'm glad it could help! Thanks for watching!
No entiendo el inglés y necesito subtítulos, por favor
Hello Howard, your videos are so explicative and good timed that is imposible to miss a detail. Thank you so much for that professional work! I have a question about lubricantion. Recently I had my vertical tuned up and after some playing I realized there were strange sounds coming from the mechanism of all keys. I found when the jack comes out under the hammer nut, it rubbs a piece of leather attached to the nut. The problem is that it wasn't producing any noise before the tuning up. Now you can hear a squeaky noise (kinda rubber noise) when the jack comes out. The technician who tuned my piano says it is lack of lubricantion. He is going to put some vaseline in it. My question is: is it allowed to do that or the problem is something that went imbalanced after the tuning. Thank you very much.🙂 PD I live in San Jose, Costa Rica. 70% RH and 70°F
In most cases noises that you hear in the action aren't caused by tuning as tuning is just adjusting the string tension. It could be that once the piano was in tune, the noises were more noticeable because you weren't so distracted by the out of tuneness of the piano. It's hard to say what the best solution is without being able to see exactly what is causing the noise.
@@howardpianoind OK Howard, thanks a lot. I know it is difficult to see what the problem is .However the specific question is that if it is right to lubricate with vaseline, the leather attached to the hammer nut when it produces noise with the friction of the jack. Thanks
I don't feel like Vaseline would be the best thing to use for this. PTFE powder works well.
@@howardpianoind Thank you Howard, I also thought it wasn't a good idea to use vaseline.I think it would entrap in the leather making it stiff and sticky over the time.👍
Hi, what can I do when one of the keys does not play as loud, it is not any harder to press it and it comes back like the others, but i need to hit it harder to make the sound. Thank you, Eva
It’s possible that it needs some regulation adjustments such as reducing lost motion or adjusting the letoff distance. It could also be due to tight action parts.
St to do with Lesley Howard??
thanks howard your videos are so helpful .I recently bought a used yamaha upright and have it in bits at the moment.Lots of muck under the keys...even a large hairgrip , I dont know how it got there.Ive watched your piano tuning course and have ordered the tools.Excellent
thanks
Hi John,
Thanks for watching. Yes, it is not uncommon to find at least a lot of dust under the keys and often times you'll find other items such as coins, paper clips, stickers among many other items. I even found a very large mouse nest under the keys in one piano.
Is lubricating the key pins different from lubricating the key bushes? Do they both accomplish the same task?
Thank you!
hello! what about to replace Flitz by the Teflon Powder *PTFE Dry on the keypins on a 2 years new kawai grand piano? thks
hello Howard, I did all the procedures explained here, I bought the product from your store, thank you for the video, it has a lot of improvement, however, I can still hear like a typewriting sensation and noise. Should I need to lubricate the hammers now? Do you think that will fix, or it is what it is and I can get a Kimbal baby grand from the '80s to get better?
If there is a clicking sound, it could be due to loose hammer flange screws or loose whippen flange screws. These need to be tightened from time to time.
@@howardpianoind Thank you, my kid also says they still a little sticky. I am going to all procedures to get them smooth, amazingly I have a super small baby grand with a really warm and nice sound, is just a shame that the action response is not so great.
Thanks Howard for sharing your knowledge. I have rust on some pins on my kawai grand. It is neccessary to remove the action or can this be done with the action inside the piano?
On a grand piano you'll need to remove the action so you can take out the keys in order to treat the tuning pins.
howardpianoind Thanks!
@@howardpianoind You mean of course UNSCREW the action from the board.
Would Protek MPL-1 be preferable to CLP? Or is CLP the way to go?
For this I would use the CLP.
🙏 thank you
You're welcome!
Hi, im living in Argentina, and i cant get this Protek, do you know another libricate for keypins? I hope you can undertand me.
No, unfortunately I don't know of a lubricant similar to Protek CLP that can be shipped internationally. Though if you polish the pins up real good and use the PTFE powder on the bushings you should have fairly good results.
Hi Howard, could you tell me please, as soften hard and heavy piano keys? I recently gave the piano, but has this deficiency, I much tired to especially touch the thumb, sometimes I do not want to play because I unmotivated, and I'd rather do it on my digital keyboard, I've played different pianos but none was so hard like this. There will be a solution? I appreciate much you answer me. Thank you!
Hi Odilia, Yes, there are different things that can be done to make the touch of the piano lighter and not so heavy. The first thing to do would be to determine what is causing the heavy touch. There are several things that could be the cause. Unfortunately there isn't one thing to try before determining which thing is causing the problem. It could be tight action parts and it could be that the action geometry is setup to provide a heavy touch. It also could be that the damper timing is too early.
Thanks for the answer (do not understand English very well, so there are parts of your videos do not understand, it's a shame, I see you have interesting things. To write I use the translator) once the piano installed at home with the first pitch only some keys were harder while others were too soft and sounded very strong, had keys jutting more level, some remained stuck, I suggested to clean the inside that could be due to dirt, actually when I opened it there were tons dirt, dust and lint, I cleaned it carefully, I took the opportunity to level the draft of the by putting keys below the felt washers washers paper, has been perfectly level, all keys sounds the same, no longer get stuck, but now all are hard. I think this has to do with the last reason you suggest, may the damping time is too early. how do I solve it? many thanks!
Hi Odiilia,
It sounds like your piano needs quite a bit of work. The reason some keys are harder to press than others could be caused by some adjustments that need to be made to the action. Yes, if there is a lot of dirt in the piano it would be good to clean it out, but that won't provide as much difference as the adjustments that need to be made. I'm sorry that you're not able to understand the videos as well because of the English. A book would be helpful, but the ones that I know of are only available in English as well.
How long does it take to do(clean pins/keyboards) one piano?
It can probably done in an hour.
Is there an equivalent of Protek for those of us overseas`? Would it be effective and safe to use silicone or wd-40 instead?
I wouldn't recommend WD-40 or silicone. I'm not aware of another lubricant that would do the same thing. For the keypins, if you polish them, this will go a long way in achieving the results. Also the PTFE powder will help the process on the bushings.
Thank you!
if you ever need to lubricate your key pins, what i do is just replace the felts inside the actual key and before i put them in i rub some powdered graphite on the felt itself. it lasts a long time and works very well with polished pins. and as a bonus, dry lubricants dont attract contamination like wet lubricants do
i see the lube with your link what about where to buy the lub. what about the flitz polish where do you buy it? thank you
Typically you can get the Flitz at your local hardware store.
thank you i will look !!
If I replace all of the felt punchouts, will I still need to "Micro-Adjust" the height of the key
yes
Absolutely
thank you so much.
Thank you for this great and informative video tutorial. Would you happen to know approximately how many applications you could get from one ounce of the Teflon powder? Also, would using three in one oil on the key pins be okay? I know that you recommend the Protek CLP, but I was wondering if you think three and one oil might work in a pinch and not cause any other issues down the road. Thank you in advance!
One ounce of the teflon powder goes quite a ways. It would probably do about a dozen applications on the whole piano. I wouldn't recommend using the 3-in-1 oil. The Protek CLP is a dry film lubricant. The oil would just gunk things up.
@@howardpianoind thank you very much for the reply. I have learned so much from your videos. You are truly a remarkable person for sharing your expertise with so many others. The knowledge that you have about piano tech and the way that you presented is truly an art. I would say that you are something of a piano tech celebrity!
Do you have a course or something on DVDs or video sets we could go through? I'm really interested on piano tuning and repairing.
At this time we don't have all of our videos on DVD, but we have two DVD's available. One is of our 8 part "How to Tune A Piano" series and the other is a collection of the videos we have on vertical piano regulation. These can be found in our online store: howardpianoindustries.com/books-and-videos/
Terrific video! Say, I ordered Protek Prolube (same size bottle but w/spray cap). Is that same/similar as your Protek CLP, would you know? Thanks for such an informative video!
ProLube is used in different areas of the piano such as lubricating the grand keybed, but it can be used on keypins like I demonstrate in this video. You just wouldn't want to use the ProLube on the action centers.
How could I replace my pins? Mine are too rusty
We do sell replacement front rail and balance rail pins: www.howardpianoindustries.com
Love watching all these videos, will the #0000 steel wool work on strings/tuning pins or is it too aggressive for de-rusting those?
Yes, you can use the steel wool on strings and pins.
Wouldn't be better to first put the felt shims back and then apply the lub? This way you may remove the lub if the felts are tight
I LOVE YOU!!!!
I have a soviet Ukraina upright piano made in the 70's and some of the keys move hard and are a little uneven. Could it be from dirt? The piano hasn't been cleaned in a long while...
There are a few different things that could cause this. It could be that the action parts are sluggish because of felt swelling in the flanges, or it could be that the key pins need to be polished as there may be some corrosion on the keypins.
This regulating button is for adjusting the height of the repetition lever. You can adjust this to make sure the top of the jack is in the right relation the the top of the repetition lever. I will be doing a video on this adjustment soon.
Can I just use regular cooking oil to lubricate the pins? I have a digital piano and one of the keys is really stiff. Would that cause damage?
I don’t really know much about digital pianos, but I wouldn’t recommend using cooking oil. This can really make a mess of things.
Cooking oil drys and leaves a thick residues.
No oil you can rub A sharp lead pencil lead on the pin work s like graffite
My balance beam felts were so beat up that I had to replace them all and the paper cardboard punchings disintegrated at my touch. How to I replace the paper punchings from scratch when you don't know which key pin had what or even which keys needed them. This is literaly a 1950s Story and Clark upright JUNKED piano my son and I are trying to restore. Yes we know it isn't worth the cost but it is worth the effort to see if we can reclaim something beautiful and functional out of a piece of junk
If you find what key height woks best for the piano, then set the key level for all of the keys at that height. Setting the key height is part of the overall regulation process.
I know this video is old, but it would really be beneficial if you could spell out the bottles of assorted fluid that you use in this, and your other videos, in your description, like you started to do here. Up to this point in your piano playlist, which has been great, by the way, every one of the bottles you used have been washed in a bath of light so bright that I can't read the label, and even though you say what the bottle is, some of the names are a little auditorily ambiguous (PVC, or PVCE? Don't know: haven't googled yet) ....except for this ONE video which ironically showcases, very plainly, a bottle of Protek, an odd spelling you couldn't get phonetically, that can't be shipped due to federal law. You even added it in the description! The ILLEGAL one of the two you mentioned in this video. lol.
I'm not trying to be cynical, I'm just laughing at the irony here: I can't order any of the innocuous ones because I can't figure out how they should be spelled, but I can very easily order a copy of a bottle of lubricant that could put me on a federal watchlist! XD
But in all seriousness, adding the names of the bottles you use in the videos to the description would be a big help. Thanks for reading.
The powder in the jar is PTFE Powder, also known as Teflon Powder. The glue that I use in some of the videos is PVC-E glue. And Protek CLP can be shipped in the USA, it just can’t be shipped internationally.
Hello i am Laurent eze piano tuner living in Yaoundé Cameroun in Africa
So i use baby powder After cleaning the Key pins and so to prevent humidity in the piano every body could use what IS possible except oil on the piano thank you for the video
You wouldn’t use wd40 would you?
No, you shouldn’t ever use WD40 for anything on a piano.
howardpianoind thank you! Really important information! Would you consider doing a top 10-20 things you should never do when maintaining a piano?
Upright piano dumper regulation
8
There is absolutely NO NEED to use lubes in a keybed. Make it clean. If the bushing is good, thats makes the whole thing.
Thank you for your feedback!
wow, 8 minutes to explain polishing a pin...
Thoroughness is good.
uah ... uah
Soooooooooo slow
Yeah this looks like itll take a long time
ey viejo! hace lo mismo en español o poneme subtitulos, no seas vago!