Restoration of a player piano that
is also an orchestrian for the Dahl family of McKinney Texas
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21) This shows one of the tiers of the pneumatic stack being
tested for air tightness. All of the signal nipples have to be temporarily covered
with these knotted hoses to keep the valves shut so that a test can be made.
22) Here you can see the pneumatics have been glued back onto one of the tiers of
the pneumatic stack. By looking at how many of the boards are light in color, you
can see just how many of the original pneumatic boards had been damaged by the previous
"restorer" and had to be replaced. This picture shows the new white valve
gasket especially well. Remember that the last restoration consisted of simply
soaking the rotten original leather gaskets with shellac to try to seal them which made
the next restoration very difficult. The shellac held tenaciously to the wood and it
required great care to get them apart without ruining the boards.
23) Here, the lifter fingers are being glued and screwed to the pneumatics.
Due to the design of this brand of mechanism, it is better to do this right in the piano
to ensure that the fingers match correctly with the action.
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24) Here, all the lifter fingers are in place and the pneumatic stack has been
completely reassembled. You can see in this picture that all the lifter fingers on
the bottom two tiers were replaced with new parts manufactured right here in the shop.
The top tier fingers are more complex and very difficult to duplicate.
However, due to their shape there is more wood in them so the top tier fingers were in
better shape. The rest of the original fingers were cracked and brittle so they were
replaced. You can see, however, that there are three new top tier fingers at the far
end of the stack. This is because of the missing 9 pneumatics that the last
person left out of the piano as described on page one. There had to be three
additional pneumatics with three additional lifter fingers for each tier.
25) Here, you can see the pneumatic stack fully assembled from the other side.
26) In this picture, the spool frame has been torn completely apart as well as the
transmission. You see that WD 40 is being used to clean all the dried and caked on
grease that encrusted every portion of the unit. All the parts to the spool box were
cleaned, polished and lubricated where appropriate. Also all pneumatic devices were
rebuilt. In addition, there was one metal sheath that hides the tracker tubing that
was missing and had to be made. Also one of the wooden brackets that holds this
sheath in place had disintegrated and was duplicated and replaced.
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27) Another picture showing the spool frame being restored.
28) This is the play/rewind device. It looks at first glance like it and the
connecting pneumatics are just fine. But upon closer inspection it turns out that
this home made device had been badly done as well. The slide valve on the top was
not surfaced well enough to seal, the pneumatic cloth was not glued on properly and was
coming off the pneumatics and the trunk board had never received any form of sealing so it
leaked right through the wood. In addition, the valves had been scavenged off an
Amphion A player mechanism but had not been restored before being included in this device.
Therefore, they didn't work. In addition, the previous rebuilder had not used
any gaskets when attaching the pneumatics and valves. I nearly destroyed the valves
getting them off the wood with how they had been glued down. With some patience and
care one of them came off in restorable condition. However, the other was destroyed
as were the pneumatics. Some type of rubbery glue that would not release the parts
had been used instead of the appropriate hide glue. Fortunately, I have a large
supply of these exact valves in the shop so a replacement was available for the valve and
new pneumatic boards were made easily enough.
29) Here, everything has been properly restored and is being reassembled. You
can see that a black gasket has been attached to the valve that is sitting on the bench
next to the device. This gasket will keep everything air tight and strong but will
enable the next restorer to get the valves and pneumatics off without ruining them.
Also, hide glue was used to attach them for additional safety in future disassembly.
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30) This shows the three tiers of the accordion's pneumatic stack being restored.
It is interesting to note that all 37 notes of this accordion were set up to play.
In restoring it, all 37 are being set up to play again. However, it is more
usual for the secondary instrument in an "O" roll orchestrian to have 24 notes
and the music on the rolls is designed accordingly. At the top of the picture is a
tier that has not yet been touched. In the middle is a tier that has had the
pneumatics split off and the pneumatics are sitting beside it. At the bottom you can
see a trunk that has been cleaned and resurfaced with strong fillers added to any voids
that were created by disassembly. Next to that is a stack of pneumatic boards that
have been stripped of their cloth and cleaned up for rehinging and recovering. It is
interesting to note that these pneumatic boards were made of walnut. This is very
unusual to find and it made the pneumatics very beautiful to look at after they had
received a coat of shellac. Normally, it would not be necessary to put any shellac
on the pneumatics but the wood was so lovely, I couldn't help putting something on them to
bring out the grain. After all, part of this stack of pneumatics will be visible
through the stained glass windows so it will be nice to be able to see them. In
fact, it is normal to find and restore player piano pneumatic systems with a semi-gloss
black or flat black finish. However, many of the parts that were made of beautiful
woods that were going to be visible through the glass, were finished in their natural wood
colors with clear shellac. This ensures that they are air tight since the shellac
prevents air from seeping through the wood and also allows the viewer of the piano to see
lovely things inside.
31) Here, again, you can see a black paper gasket installed on the
three tiers of the accordion pneumatic stack. This will ensure that these beautiful
walnut pneumatics will receive absolutely no damage whatsoever the next time they have to
be restored. They will come off very easily to any rebuilder who knows how to remove
them. This is in contrast to the difficult time I had removing them because they had
been glued down directly onto the wood of the trunks with some glue other than hide glue.
That is why I had to repair some voids on the trunks. They had become damaged
during disassembly.
32) This shows one tier of pneumatics being clamped in place while the glue sets up.
This isn't absolutely necessary in gluing pneumatics when your using hot hide glue
but it is a nice idea. The cloth is not being harmed by the clamps because felt
cushions were glued inside the pneumatics at an earlier stage to protect them while being
clamped.
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33) The finished accordion. All that remains is to install the bellows and
replace the cover plates. Also, the spring mechanism will have to be redone because
it was original done improperly. Also the mounting block that holds the accordion to
the piano as well as the shelf that holds all the top instruments were made of cheap,
ugly, and insufficiently strong materials. These well all be replaced with woods
that are stable and pleasant to look at.
34) Pictures #34 through #38 show the making of brand new high quality valves made
from maple and leather. This first picture shows a set of wood valve seats that have
been drilled into a piece of hard maple. Later they were taken to the planer and the
excess wood at the bottom of this board was planed away until all the valve seats were
released from the board. Sadly, the person who originally put this piano together as
an orchestrian used cheap Aeolian plastic valves to drive the pneumatics of the accordion.
These type of valves, as I mentioned to the owner when I first saw pictures of this
piano, are notorious for leaking even when they're new. It was hoped that they would
be in good enough repair to be reused since they cannot be restored. When they wear
out they must be replaced with another plastic valve. A valve, by the way, that will
probably leak even when it is new. I hate to have anything leave my shop that
doesn't have top quality parts in it. Therefore, I made all new valves from
traditional materials using traditional techniques. In this picture, you can see a
box full of these valves in various stages of creation. Since set up is 90% of the
time in making parts like this, I decided to make a pile of extras while I was at it.
Then I'll have more valve "blanks" for future use. These valves
will work for many years without such bad leaks as the plastic valves are famous for.
Then, when these valves do wear out, it will be a simple matter to rebuild them and
put them right back into service. It is unfortunate that we didn't find the original
plastic valves in usable condition because of the additional expense that is tied up in
making new parts instead of rebuilding existing parts. But it is far better to have
a piano that is reliable than to have one you know for a fact you can't count on, which is
exactly the situation with those plastic valves. Of course, the customer can choose
to purchase new plastic valves if they wish. The plastic valves are a little less
expensive than the new wood valves will be. That I will leave up to them.
Since, after I started actually rebuilding the piano, I found that many parts that I
expected would be there were simply missing; and since the customer has to pay for the
making of new parts to replace missing ones, I decided to go ahead and make all the new
parts that the piano needed to be a complete and successful masterpiece of an orchestrian.
In this way, I can give the customer an exact figure on how long it will take and
how much it will cost to make all the parts that the piano turned out to be missing.
That way, when the customer learns of the missing parts, I won't have to tell them
that I don't know how long it will take to make new parts. I can give them an exact
list of the things that were missing and an exact time and cost for manufacturing of the
same. Then the customer can decide whether they want to go to that expense or not.
If they choose against these additional items, I will just keep the parts and use
them on some later project. That is much more fair for the customer than telling
them that they will just have to pay whatever it ends up costing based upon the hours
taken up in the manufacturing of the new parts.
35) This picture shows the actual valve heads being made in a similar technique to
how the wooden valve seats in #34 were made. When the piano was shipped to me, it
was in many pieces since the owner had attempted to take it apart and get it working
themselves. Sadly, I may have gotten their hopes up a bit too high when we first
spoke after the piano arrived. Upon going over the pile of items that arrived as the
movers brought them in, I didn't notice the parts that were missing. Part of this
was because the missing parts would not be obvious until you tried to make the piano
actually play or went to rebuild the piano. Part of this was because I neglected to
look for certain things because I never conceived that anyone would build an orchestrian
like this and leave such parts out. And part of it was because I just didn't notice
it. As the actual restoration started, it started to become obvious that parts I
just assumed would be there simply were not. For instance, there was a tambourine on
the piano but when I went to look for the valve and pneumatic that operated it, I
discovered that there was none. I found a striker pneumatic for a triangle but there
is no triangle for it to play nor any valve to operate it. The snare drum had the
correct number of beaters but it turns out that one of the valves that operates it was
gone and the other had parts missing out of it. The piano has a bass drum that has a
very nice tone as well as a cymbal but there are no beaters for either of them. In
addition, the cymbal was of poor quality and had been cracked and then improperly
repaired. The percussion instrument call the wood block had a beater and valve but
in an "O" roll orchestrian the tambourine, triangle, snare drum roll pneumatic
and wood block need to have self repeating valves which these do not. So instead,
for instance, of the snare drum roll device going "Brrrrrrrr" it only goes
"tap." In addition, I discovered that there was no device to turn
the accordion on and off. The roll calls the accordion to turn on during appropriate
moments in the music. This piano was set up with the accordion running all the time
whether it was musically attractive for it to do so or not. Also, I found that
there was nothing to govern the air flow. The air needs to be controlled so that the
music is of the correct loudness for the roll and so no notes drop out during large
chords. The air also needs to be controlled to the percussions and the accordion so
that there is a musical balance. There were no accommodations for any of that in
this piano. That means that the shear loudness of the percussion and the accordion
would drown out the piano. That is, if it weren't for the fact that the bass drum
and cymbal didn't play at all but rather were just there for looks. The fact that
they didn't play would have reduced this "noise" to some extent. Still
it is better to have them playing and at an appropriate volume level. Another
thing that would have been better in this piano is a block that transfers all the air
signals to the upper devices. This block would be made in such a way so that the
simple removal of a few screws would disconnect all the wind lines to the top action.
In this way, the top action can be removed for tuning and moving. The way the
piano was made when it arrived at the shop, it would have cost hundreds of dollars each
time the piano had to be tuned because every single tube had to be removed from its nipple
and somehow be kept track of so that the top action could be removed for tuning.
This very lack of a "manifold" that allowed the piano to be moved in two
complete and self contained pieces is the very reason it was not discovered how much was
missing until the rebuilding commenced. You have to completely dismantle the thing
to move. A tubing manifold would eliminate this problem. Another part that
turned up incomplete was the coin operator. The tray that catches the coins was
missing as was the latching relay that turns the piano on and off from a coin insertion.
The rest of the coin device was there, including the shut off pneumatic and
microswitch.
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36) This picture shows a number of these valve blocks in various stages of
completion in order to give you an idea of how complex a player piano valve actually is.
37) On the left in this picture is a pile of "extra" valves that were
turned out at the same time as the ones that were actually needed for this project.
Actually a number of the valve blocks on the left will be pressed into service on this
piano in the form of locks and cancels and some will become valves to replace missing
items. On the right side, you can see the valves that are intended for use in the
accordion. At the top right are valves with their new pouches and lifter buttons
resting on top of them. At the bottom right is a row of valves turned upside down so
that you can see the pouches after they have been installed into the valve. The very
bottom row on the right shows a line of valves that have received their pouches and are
now turned right side up again. In this picture, you can also see piles of valve
seats, valve buttons and valve stems awaiting inclusion in the valve blocks on the left of
the picture.
38) This is a close up of the bottom right of #37. You can see the top row of
valve blocks is upside down with their corresponding valves and seats sitting above them.
The bottom row shows completed valves turned right side up again.
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39) This is a valve block that actually came with the piano. It is sufficient
to run four of the percussion pneumatics. Again, this device can be visible so all
the fittings and wood were finished to be their most beautiful. The block was also
completely rebuilt on the inside.
40) This is a new lock and cancel valve being built. It takes two valves
talking to each other to create a lock and cancel. What happens with this valve is
as follows: When the roll wants the music to be soft, it sends a signal down one of
the rubber signal tubes to one side of this valve. That momentary signal will switch
this valve's position and cause air to be sucked out of a pneumatic and held out
permanently. When the roll is done with the soft playing, it sends another signal
down another rubber signal hose to the opposite side of this valve. That latches the
valve over in the opposite position and allows the pneumatic to reopen. Another such
valve is needed so the roll can turn the accordion on and off. If it weren't for the
use of the lock and cancel valve, it would be necessary to place extremely long rows of
holes in the roll that would most likely cause the roll to tear. In this way, you
get a specific action out of the player mechanism with only a single hole in the paper.
41) This is another valve called a "primary" valve that came with the
piano when it arrived. However, the previous rebuilder, had put this valve into
service doing a completely unnecessary operation that could be performed much more easily
using a different device that was already a part of the piano. Therefore, this valve
was given a new midsection as shown on the far left of this picture. This new
midsection has a much larger air flow than the original did and is also made of maple to
be more long lasting and air tight. It also received a new, larger valve. In
this way, this valve was put into service as a part of the device that causes the music to
become loud when called for by the roll.
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42) This picture shows the trunk board that contains many of the wind lines and
intricate passages needed to create an expression device for this piano. The board
is made of very high grade poplar and is being drilled for its airways at the drill press.
This piano did not have an expression device of any kind. However, the
"O" roll does contain signals that call for expression. The music is about
500% more enjoyable to listen to when it is expressive so it was decided to go ahead and
build an expression device for the piano. When the device is done, I'll know exactly
how long it took to make and how much it will need to cost. If the customer doesn't
want this very special improvement to the music, they can choose not to include it if they
want.
43) Here, the trunk has been completely shaped and drilled. Then it was sealed
with numerous coats of shellac to make it perfectly air tight.
44) The same trunk board from the other side. You can see that the wood this
is made from is very lovely so it was decided to leave the shellac coating on it clear
rather than making it black.
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45) The expression device also has a large moveable board
attached to it. This has the advantage of turning the expression device into a wind
stabilizer also. It will help to keep the suction so that notes don't drop out
during large chords as well as making the music expressive.
46) In this picture, you can see that many other additional devices have been added.
Air supply and output nipples have been added as have the lock and cancel valve
(bottom left side) that works the soft play pneumatic (top left side) and the primary
valve (the square device at the bottom right) that was enlarged so it could work the forte
and mezzo forte pneumatic that is mounted at the far right. Another pair of items
that are usually found in orchestrians that was missing in this piano were the devices to
operate the soft pedal and the damper pedal. In combination with the soft pedal, the
expression device shown in this picture is capable of generating six different expressive
levels of playing volume. Some of the extra valve blocks shown in the left side of
#37 will be used in making valves to operate new soft pedal and damper pedal pneumatics.
The customer can decide about including them once their done and I can report
exactly how long they took to build.
