Key Leveling

My procedures for leveling keys in a grand piano's action, on the bench or in the piano. This includes use of Rocke Sharp Leveling Blocks and a thickness gauge trick for quickly choosing punchings. Visit grandwork.tools/ for grand regulating tools, procedures, and training materials.
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[@djskolnik]

Hi Chris - nice, as always. I'm assuming you don't mind a few comments, even if I may have a few divergent views: - it's not clear how or when you set the initial key heights (ends). - assuminng the keyframe has been bedded in piano - in the piano, would you asssume that the clamping of the front rail to the keybed (as per the keyblocks) would have little or no effect on the balance rail/ setting of key height? - it would seem that the accurate use of the keystep as a support would require either the front rail be clamped in both piano and on bench or unclamped on both. Is that accurate? - why wouldn't you make key squaring your first step, since subsequent correcting could affect your initial level? - for that matter, it remains a bit of a question to me whether to 'square' keys to flat edge or crowned. Not quite the same. - you indicate that leveling entails a number of passes. Do you employ a 'key-pounder' between the various levelings?

[@chrisbrownrpt]

Hi, David - Lots of good stuff there. Key height has to respect case parts and key pins, so the initial calculation should be assessed in the piano. Yes, for a Steinway, where the ends of the frontrail are brought down to the keybed by the cheekblocks, they should be doing their job when setting up the Keysteps. A stable connection is needed for them to be accurate. The Custom Keybed does hold them down, but a workaround can work fine on the bench if that is where you want to do the leveling (which I do). I bed and sample in the piano such that my setup on the bench, with or without the fancy tool, is accurate, and for a Steinway, gentle clamping of the guide pins is needed. I think it is possible for clamping to effect the balancerail, but if it does, the bedding should be checked. I do square obvious offenders right away, but when the keys are very far below level, the rest are better done after the first pass. I square the keys to the straightedge I am using. 1/32" crown over 4' is so small that it is mostly for a good tactile result. When done, I want the keys to feel level to the player. I don't think a key pounder is necessary. I manually push all the air out of punchings, cloth, and felt so results will be stable.