Action services are not generally separated out from other piano services in our trade. In The Piano Rebuilders consortium, they are closely coordinated with Mike Morvan's key work and Jude Reveley's belly work, but they take place in their own shop. Further, they represent the last stop in the work pipeline for our rebuilds. Not only is the action restoration done in the separate shop, but also the actions are installed there, with all that goes into completing the overall job.
Christopher Brown's piano action shop (Concord Piano LLC) has distinct areas for different functions with their individual requirements: a basement area with outdoor access and ventilation for compressor, dust collector, and the spraying of parts that require a finish, a finished basement area for storage, the rebuilding shop, a fitting and installation area, an office, and a showroom.
A bead blaster for cleaning, machinery with jigs and fixtures, storage racks, and benches populate the shop area. All manner of standard and custom preparation of parts, their assembly, and their bench regulating takes place in there: careful centerpinning for even and appropriate friction, meticulous hammer shaping and part adaptation, fine action balancing.
The actions receive best parts, materials, and attention. They are specially prepped and when assembled, great care is given to spacing, squaring, and traveling. Chris's method of action balancing (weigh off), by evenly tapering down-weights, up-weights, and inertia from key to key and from bass to treble, also helps fine tune frictional resistance.