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The
Official Newsletter of the |
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November, 2008 |
Next Chapter Meeting:
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DATE |
November 24, 2008 |
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LOCATION |
Classic
Pianos (503) 239-9969 |
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Business |
6:00 PM |
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General |
7:00 |
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Humidity Control Beeper Modification:
Sherman Clay/ Moe’s Pianos Concerts:
TECHNICAL PRESENTATION:
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List Processing: Mail Merge Why be at this technical? Learn
to process mass mailings via email, Create mailing labels, reminder postcards
and form letters. Get the word out to your clients. Who’s giving the technical?
What the heck does he know
about it? Mark was a senior software engineer, software quality assurance
manager at Intel. He has done data base application development and QA for
over 25 years with all kinds of assignments in data collection, data
distribution, data management and data mining. What tools will he be
using? The practical principles will be transferable to most any Operating
System and tool set. For demonstration purposes he will focus on the Microsoft products Word and Excel with a
reasonable sized client database of about 8,000 persons. Join the fun, discussion
and mayhem! |
MINUTES OF LAST MEETING:
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Julie Mackinnon called the meeting to order at 6 pm. Present: Julie Mackinnon, President; Don Mitchell, Vice President; Amy Zilk, Secretary; Greg Tucker, Member Liaison; Future Technical
Presentation: The November
technical presentation will be “List Processing: Using the Internet to Expand Your Business”
given by Advertisement: Julie reported on an advertisement proposed for the Chamber Music Concert Series programs. She will present to membership for approval. Christmas Party: Greg Tucker reported on the Meeting Locations: Julie reported that Kim Took, General Manager of Michele’s has enthusiastically welcomed all members of the Portland Chapter and their guests and would like to host a meeting in January or February. Meeting adjourned at 6:21 pm. Submitted by, Amy Zilk Julie Mackinnon called the meeting to order at 6:24 pm. Present: Julie Mackinnon, RPT, President; Don Mitchell, RPT, Vice President; Tom Levings, RPT, Past President; Rick Hales, Treasurer; Amy Zilk, Secretary; Greg Tucker, Member Liaison; Jeff Hickey, RPT; Taylor Mackinnon, RPT; Ed Mulcahey, RPT; John Rhodes, RPT; Ken Serviss, RPT; David Streit, RPT; Caryn Backman, member; Dhar-wynn Blakemore, member; Larry Davis, member; Les Fitzpatrick, member; Matt Hirshfelder, member; Diane Hofstetter, member; Audrey Hurlburt, member; Bob Ledden, member; Joshua Casey, guest; Hy Cohen, guest; Mark Feener, guest; Marshall Gisondi, guest; Len Legdger, host; Logan Streit, guest; William Streit, guest; Casey Wood, guest Christmas Party: Greg Tucker proposed that the Christmas Party be held at the Kennedy School Gym. Jeff Hickey moved to approve $375 for a deposit to secure the date for Monday, December 8. Joe Garret seconded. Motion carried. Advertising: Julie proposed running a PTG advertisement in the Chamber Music Concert Series, 6 programs, for the cost of $225. Joe Garret suggested that “Portland Chapter” be added to the ad and moved that the $225 be approved. Motion carried. Meetings and Technical Presentations: Joe Garret requested that more advanced topics be offered in technical presentations and that future offerings be announced in the newsletter. Don Mitchell is working toward this goal. Julie Mackinnon announced that Kim Took, General Manager of Michele’s welcomes all members of PTG and is happy to host the January or February meeting. Ted Mulcahey reported that our local Steinway dealer is happy to host PTG meetings as well. Special thanks go to Len Ledger for providing pizza for
the October meeting. Len spoke to the
group about the Emil Fries school which now has eight students. National Convention Award Nominations: Audrey Hurlburt volunteered to help with submission of nominations for awards from the Portland Chapter. Julie Mackinnon asked for additional volunteers. She also asked for input about who we may want to nominate and that members should note that nominated persons do not need to belong to the Portland Chapter. Meeting adjourned at 6:56 pm. Submitted by, Amy Zilk |
TOOL TIP
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Keytop Replacement I’ve been RE-Recovering quite a few sets of keys of late! The main reasons for this are; The use of “Molded Key Top Material”, and the failure of the contact cement used in the past. Why molded key are tops a problem? There are several issues: A. This abomination of keytop material ASSUMES that all keys are a standard size, THEY ARE NOT!!! B. Once the material is stuck on the key, with all of the excess hanging over the edges, etc., there is really no way, short of hand filing, to trim them! Even an Oslund key machine will not do the trick, because of the substandard plastic used. C. The material is too soft to even buff without galling (basically the product melts and balls up like pills on a sweater ed.) D. The material is too THICK and will usually interfere with the case parts, i.e. key cover, cheek blocks, Key slip & Name board. Grinding off the material or shimming case parts are unsatisfying solutions. The real answer to the problem is to replace with a plastic is the proper thickness and hardness. Ivory may be the best material but is extremely costly and more difficult to work with. Many key tops were replaced using contact cement. 4-5 years seems to be the life expectancy of contact cement as it looses its adhesiveness with age. This is the second reason that I am RE-replacing key tops. I find PVC-E Glue the best adhesive so far. PVC-E was designed to glue plastic to dissimilar materials. The down-side to using PVC-E is that it remains gummy for a really long time and tends to gum up the trimming machine blades if it is not cleaned off before it sets up. Well, there you have it. My antiquated take on the replacement of key tops. I hope this article will give you cause to think about the issue(s) of this problem. After all, “IF THE KEYS AREN’T RIGHT… NOTHING ELSE CAN BE”!! Thanks for listening, Joe Garrett |
Humidity Control Beeper Modification:
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I really like the idea of a beeper installed on a system for a couple of reasons. If the low water warning light doesn’t catch a client’s eye, a beeper will get their attention and will avoid a system running dry. Clients sometimes have second thoughts about the option. Although, after the system runs dry because they didn’t notice the light and their piano tuning gets screwed up, the tend to re-think the issue and want the beeper option. To make things easier on me and my clients I have limited the choices I offer to them. I choose only the best options for my clients here in this type of climate. I only order 50 watt systems with a smart bracket and a beeper; I un-complicate it for them and price my systems accordingly. By modifying the beeper circuit to include a switch, the client now has the ability to enable or disable the beeper. Should the beeper activate at an inconvient time, it may simply be silenced until the situation is corrected. It make thinks easier for me and the client as I no longer give the option of the beeper, it's simply included and priced accordingly. I have included some pictures with the modification I made (sorry about being blurry). Picture 1 – Self explanatory. Light panel with a beeper.
Picture 2 – Heat shrink insulation stripped off beeper wires.
Picture 3 – Single pole, single throw miniaturized switch spliced into the red wire. Heat shrink insulated. This next piece of information is different than what we discussed and I thought you ought to know. On the H5 when you remove a beeper permanently, you CANNOT splice the wires. If you do, the yellow light will cease to function. You have to just cut the beeper wires and leave it, then the light panel will function properly. On earlier versions of the humidistat, it is necessary to splice the beeper wires if you cut off the beeper. Not splicing on the H5 is fine with me. It makes installing a switch much easier.
Picture 4 – I used a wire clamp to surround the miniature switch and secure it to the key bed. It is a very snug fit and I had to use a longer screw than is provided in the install kit. I used a drywall screw. This was a very nice, solid switch; it didn’t spin or move at all.
Now we just have to think of a way to make the light flash about 12 hours before the beeper goes off. If they didn’t pay attention to the light, I suppose being woken up in the middle of the night could be justified. :o) The switch cost me $3.95 and $1.00 for a couple of feet of shrink wrap at a Norvac electronics store. I consider it well worth the price for taking care of this issue. David Streit Registered Piano Technician Field Expert, Piano Climate Control Systems Owner: AAA Piano Service 503-381-8289 PianoPDX.com |
A NOTE FROM OUR PRESIDENT:
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President's Message
By the time you read this, Oregon Day will have come and gone. I am pleased to be able to report that the goal of at least 30 people attending has already been met and exceeded. It only remains to get a final count to see how many more technicians will attend past our goal of 30 people.
Congratulations to our Chapter and its members for pulling Oregon Day together in a relatively short amount of time. It pays to dream big and then go for it!
The last technical at the
Thank you from the Portland Chapter to the
The boards original goal set in August to be as supportive as possible to Associates wanting to upgrade before the tests double in cost is paying off. Nothing like a deadline to motivate! Three technical tests have been given. One Associate passed all portions and follow up tests are scheduled for the other portions to be mastered. Tuning tests are set for early December. Check with Jeff Hickey if you would like more information about that test schedule.
After the first of the year we will be getting into more advanced technicals. Please keep in mind that Randy Potter and Tom Levings have pledged to continue being supportive for any Associates wanting to continue to hone their skills for challenging the tests.
Thank you to all Chapter Members for all the support my board and I have enjoyed as we strive to make our professional organization grow, learn and be the best we can be in our chosen field of piano technology! Our Portland Chapter is truly outstanding!
Julie Mackinnon RPT |
Sherman
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Current Officers:
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Mark Gallant Aloha, OR 97006 503-642-1883 Article submission deadline
in the 2nd Monday of the each month to allow inclusion in that
month’s publication. |
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PTG Bylaws (National)
Article VIII section E #6 All expression of opinion and all statement of supposed facts are published on the authority of the author as listed, and are not to be regarded as expressing the view of the Chapter nor the Piano Technicians Guild Inc., unless such opinions have been adopted by the chapter or the Piano Technicians Guild Inc. |