Expanding action brackets....

[keys60]

Any of you pro techs run across this phenomena? Young Chang products if I remember correctly. Is the company still sending out upgraded brackets?

[pianorebuilder]

Yes,
   I have replaced many YC brackets.  Sometimes you need to replace the Let off rails as well, but that is a more rare phenomena.  They are still available.  I need to contact them tomorrow regarding black keytop replacements...  try and post the model and serial number of the piano and I will ask them if it falls within the time period of the problem.  I think they still provide them at no cost, but I am not sure.  Will ask.

[keys60]

Piano rebuilder. Thanks. Just brought it up for topic discussion having run into it a few times in the past. Thought a few more folks should know about it.

[Bob]

What is it?

[pianorebuilder]

What is it?

During a time period in the late 80's and early 90's, Young Chang used a certain mixture  of metals on the Action Brackets that hold the Stack together.  In time, the metal actually swells, and moves the action rails within the Stack.  Most of the time, hammers will block against the strings, and get worse with time.  Most technicians that are not aware of the problem, readjust the let-off dowels farther and farther downward to compensate for the blocking of the hammers.  Eventually, you either run out of threads on the dowels, or they strip out, or the customer gets tired of paying for let-off regulation!  That's why sometimes you must replace the let-off rails as well.
In all cases I have worked on, YC would pay for the replacement and reregulation of the action
 (a set rate).  I have even seen quite a few pianos from the 20's and 30's that used pot metal on the Action brackets, and they were almost completely disintegrated.   
Tried YC today on the phone but no answer...will try again tomorrow.

[Bob]

Pot metal?  Is that the same stuff they build ISOs (instrument shaped objects) out of for school bands?  The cheap leftover metal that doesn't bend?  Those instruments are around $100 and if someone tries to repair them and tries to bend a metal part, it will snap (because of the cheap metal) instead of bending like normal instrument metal.

[richard black]

Pot metal = monkey metal = mazac, an alloy of magnesium, zinc, aluminium and copper, which is very easy to cast but nearly impossible to machine properly. Its best known use is for car door handles (in the 1970s and 1980s when they were all shiny and protruberant), and it was also popular with model-makers because it could be cast at the sort of temperatures you can easily achieve over a domestic gas cooker flame. And yes, it doesn't bend, you can't polish it.... it's pretty rubbish stuff really.

[keys60]

I think another term for it was white metal. Really cheesy cast alloy the is so brittle, it may eventually disintegrate. VW actually made lug nuts out of the stuff in the mid 70's. Changing a tire on my 75 Rabbit was a.....well....the b word.

To get the actions out of the piano, I think the last case was a Kohler and Campbell, now a YC product as well as other piano names they bought up, I had to cut with a hack saw because they swelled so much, I would have snapped the hammers off as I slid the action out. Luckily, I was schooled on this phenomena by my mentor. He actually ordered the parts for me, and its been a while since I faced this situation. Just wondering if YC was still providing the free upgrades.

I heard rumor to YC being taken over by Samick. Is that correct? YC was cheapening themselves out of the market as Samick only strived to improve. Thoughts?

[Bob]

The pot metal idea lowers my opinion of Young Chang a little.

[silverwoodpianos]

This is called zincification; too much zinc content in the pouring….YC dealt with this some time ago, there should not be any more expanding bracket from them in the future.

I believe the problem was late 80’s to early 90’s as stated previously. YC will send you the bracket @ nc but they will not fund the regulation required after dismantle and re-assemble from what I understand about the problem.

 Not too familiar with this symptom; all of the churches I have with YC are products  from the early 80’s and for the most part have already been replaced with other instruments.

There have been other makers of pianos that had this as a manufacturing problem back in the 20’s…domestic makers in fact. Not much point that I can see in spending anytime thinking less of any piano manufacturing firm.

 Manufacturing problems come up all the time; think of the automobile recalls in the last 18 months for some of the imports; one in particular that seemed to have its own desire to get you to where you would like to go in a big hurry…..