this is an O’Grady set of regulators, and the tenor regulator C # key will stick when pressed.
in comparing this block with the F# block, it looks to me like the F# has a little rectangle, landing of sorts, that I imagine the leaf spring slides on, when pressed.
I’m not seeing such a thing on my C#, or maybe it’s wonky?
I tried making the leaf spring a little more aggressive with a slight tweak with needle nose pliers, but no help, and just will stick if press slowly.
If I flick the key quickly, it will jump back up all day long, it’s just when held down for any length of time that it will stick, and with a very slight nudge upward, it will spring back into position.
i’ll show hear the F# key with its little rectangle pad,
Seems odd that one key has the metal striker plate (that’s my name for it, I don’t know what other makers call them!) and the other doesn’t, but I have come across flutes where not every key has one. They seem more necessary on short keys with short springs than on long keys with long springs.
Have you tried a spot of cork grease on the tip of the spring? That can sometimes be enough to restore the proper sliding action.
If the tip of the spring has dug a little hole in the wood, I’d say it’s time to smooth it and add a striker plate.
Greasing the tips of the springs is a good routine thing to do with flutes, and probably pipes too. And making sure the slot hasn’t a buildup of dirt, grime, etc. Worth trying a smear of grease on the sides of the key where it fits in the slot as well.
I’ll take a closer look tomorrow, but I think it may have very well worn a bit of a gouge, and if so, I’ll take your advice and fashion. I little landing strip for the leaf spring.
Let me just mention one other thing on the off chance it’s relevant. You mentioned the key mostly operates well unless released slowly. So it’s very close to working.
With this style of springing, if the spring is a tiny bit too long, you can have this situation. It’s because when the key is depressed, the tip of the spring slides forward. And if it’s a little too long, it now finds itself under the key axle. Where it has no leverage to return the key. Lift the touch ever so slightly, the tip slides back a bit, and suddenly the spring has leverage and snaps the key back into the rest position.
So why did the maker leave the spring too long? Perhaps they didn’t. Perhaps something has happened since to create the same effect. The spring metal has aged a bit? Someone has straightened out the spring a bit, making it appear longer? The key has bent a bit? Etc, etc. It doesn’t take much!
And perhaps made a little worse by some of the other things we have talked about, like a bit of friction that wasn’t there previously.
Don’t go hacking bits off the end of the spring as a first response! A too-short spring will mean a heavy key! (Too much leverage!). But keep it in the back of your mind as you investigate the issues we talked about previously.
And that discussion hopefully reveals the genius of our flute and pipes key springing. With most kinds of springs, the resistance increases as the sprung item is pressed. Very little force needed to start opening the key, but increasing effort to open it fully.
But with our keyed instruments, the opposite applies. A little force (just what’s needed to seat the pad) to start opening the key, and DIMINISHING force to open it further. Snappy action, not sluggish. How brilliant is that?!
But this terrific outcome doesn’t come easily. Your flute or pipes maker has to get it just right. Spring too long, unreliable return. Spring too short, heavy keys. Get it right means happy maker. Get it wrong, unrivet the spring and do it again. Grumpy maker!
And a moment to reflect on what genius came up with this system of springing. I don’t even know on what instrument it was perfected. Baroque one-key flute perhaps? We modern makers are in debt to that genius, and must strive to achieve routinely what they achieved.
And always keep in mind that I’m a flute maker, not a pipes maker, so I could be taking analogies too far!
(I did make a few sets of pipes in my early flute making years, but then recognised that both fields were very complex and that I really needed to concentrate on one if I wanted to get anywhere! Flutes won that argument. Makes me wonder what might have happened had I gone the other way!)
FWIW, during my early days as a piper I was very strongly advised never to use anything greasy on the regulator keys. The reasoning being gunk and bits will inevitably assemble in the keyslots and form an abrasive mass that will give you more trouble than it will ever solve. YMMV ofcourse. Well made keys, kept clean, will do their job.
Certainly you sometimes come across flutes that have accumulated a lot of gunk in the slots. Whether the keys had been greased I don’t know. I’m not convinced that the gunk forms an abrasive mass, I don’t remember seeing wear, more just impeding gunk. Clean it away and we’re usually back in business.
Engineers would take a different position. They would say any moving part needs lubrication. But how to prove either assertion I don’t know!
One other thing struck me. With flutes we are mostly dealing with Sterling silver keys, although you do find some 19th century flutes with nickel silver (“German Silver”) keys.
Whereas pipes seem mostly to have brass keys. Silver is fairly inert, while brass will corrode in a moist climate to form verdigris. That can be a bit abrasive and could lead to a key sticking. Verdigris takes on a bluish/ greenish colour. Fine steel wool will normally take it off, so that’s worth trying if just cleaning out the slots isn’t enough.
Indeed if the key fit in the shot is too tight, either by wood shrinkage or accumulated muck, there will be a slowness of action but it is most likely the cause will be connected to the spring.
Either a lack of a smooth surface at the spring skate touch down on the wood or lack of a polished surface of the skate. I’ve seen springs that have a very small skate surface that can tend to dig into the wood. I prefer to make the skate surface curved and well polished. The length of the spring can reach as far as the pivot pin centre but then it must be curved upwards slightly and the actual touch down point is back from that end and the pin centre. A spring that touches down close to the pivot centre will rub the least distance along the wood as the key is actuated and thus cause the least amount of wear.
The curve of the spring should be gradual, if possible, so the stiffness of the majority of the piece is used to close the key.
A tiny drop of 3-in-one oil applied to a well polished spring skate should see it working well.
Still having trouble ? Perhaps you should post a photo or two of the spring .
