Restoration of a Fischer Ampico grand for Jim Durfee
148) 
149) 
150) 
148) The wind motor before work began on it.
Measurement of the cloth that had been put on this motor revealed that the last person to
rebuild it didn't know what they were doing. It was covered with the same thickness
of cloth that is used on the stack pneumatics. This is too thin for the work of a
wind motor. This is done by some to try to make the motor run more smoothly.
However, by rebuilding the motor correctly, this expedient isn't needed to make the motor
run smoothly.
149) The individual components that make up the motor have been
disassembled.
150) The crank shaft and slide valves. This motor as well as all the
moving parts in the drawer had been slathered with oil. The bushings were so soaked
with it that there was no cleaning them. Even though they weren't all that worn,
they had to be replaced in order to rid ourselves of all the oil. The rubber cloth
that covers each slide valve was replaced. Each valve was trued up by sanding on a
piece of glass and then lubricated with powdered graphite. The crank shaft was
cleaned and polished and every bushing in this assembly was replaced. Not only the
crank shaft bushings but also the connecting rod bushings were replaced.
151) 
152) 
153) 
151) The reassembled valve/crank shaft assembly. Not a
clamp on the far end. The mounting arm on that end had broken. It was glued up
and the crank shaft used to help it to dry in the correct position. After the glue
dried, the seam was reinforced by wrapping many layers of glue soaked thread around it.
It will never break in the same place again!
152) Recovering the pneumatics with the correct thickness of motor cloth.
Note that the wind trunk and the surface the slide valves operate over are glued to
the pneumatics in such a way that it would do great damage to remove them. It is
possible to glue the cloth onto the pneumatics without removing these blocks. The
cloth has to be carefully cut so that it doesn't overlap onto the blocks in areas where it
isn't needed. Note that this cloth has been glued to one end of the pneumatic and
cut to shape before gluing to the sides.
153) This is the automatic shut off valve and pneumatic before they were
restored.
154) 
155) 
156) 
154) Here, I am measuring the thickness of cloth covering
this pneumatic. I suspected the thickness was, once again, incorrect. I even
checked it against an unrestored original shut off pneumatic from an Amphion that I had in
storage. I was correct about the cloth. It was supposed to be motor cloth
again. Either the last rebuilder didn't bother to measure the original cloth and
threw just anything on these or he didn't have any motor cloth and made due with the wrong
stuff. In either event, the drawer components will work better and last longer now
that they have been covered in the correct material. Note that the valve is already
on its way to being rebuilt in this photo.
155) Rehinging the pneumatic in the usual "Amphion" way of using three
hinge pieces for each hinge.
156) This wheel helps the ladder chain on the wind motor to stay taught.
The bushing on the inside was worn out and the bushing on the outside was soaked
with oil. I had to replace them both.
157) 
158) 
159) 
157) See the wheel back in the drawer where it belongs.
Also note that the block to the right of the wheel has also been rebushed.
This bushing had worn enough that it was too sloppy to keep. I replaced it.
This bushing holds a shaft that transfers the turning of the wind motor over to the other
side of the drawer.
158) The wind motor governor before work began.
159) I just had to take a picture of this! The last person to restore
this, apparently didn't know how to releather valves. This valve is the governor
bypass. It allows a high volume of wind to pass through the governor so that the
motor will run faster during rewind. The idiot that rebuilt this, apparently was
having trouble with air leaking past this valve and messing up the motor speed during
play. Instead of restoring the valve, they jammed the wind channel full of cardboard
to block the air from passing through. This solved their play problem but would have
created another problem. The wind motor would have been very slow at rewinding the
rolls. I'll be willing to wager that the owner will be tickled to see how fast his
rolls rewind now that the governor is working properly.
160) 
161) 
162) 
160) This is an example to show that I record my mistakes as
well as my triumphs. I had forgotten how the pouch block that operates the governor
bypass valve was secured into the governor. It is held in place with two screws
which are buried in felt, shellac and a metal screen on the opposite side of the governor.
I was thinking that the block was glued into place. I attempted to remove it
with a knife and a chisel. The result was that I broke the pouch block. Rather
than attempt to glue this block back together, I made a totally new one out of maple just
like the original. I could never have trusted the original to hold its shape and
stay air tight if I had attempted to glue it back together.
161) The white square is the pouch block back in its position in the
governor. Note that the governor has also had the tempo slide valve releathered, the
tempo plate and friction surfaces lubricated, the pneumatic cloth replaced and the gasket
replaced with leather instead of cork. The wire that extends out the front of the
governor is the connector that controls the music tempo. As you adjust the tempo
from the drawer, this wire moves the slide valve in and out to let more or less air pass
through the tempo plate. This wire is usually bushed with felt. The felt
bushings work fine but have a minor flaw. They let a little air leak by.
Rather than allow this leakage, I replace these felt bushings with a coarse suede
leather. It works the same as the felt in terms of letting the wire move in and out
but it doesn't let any air sneak by. Also note that the leather covering the square
pouch mentioned before is white. Normally pouch leather is brown. This is a
slightly stiffer pouch leather that is chrome tanned. It is a little tougher than
the brown pouch leather and also slightly less expensive. It works well on large
pouches and on small pneumatics. It is a fine choice for this pouch because of its
size. If you try to use chrome tanned pouch leather to make small pouches, you will
find that you can't get the system to operate at lower suction levels which is why I never
use it anywhere else in these systems.
162) This is the tracking device which has a valve block attached to it
which controls play/rewind. Again, it was covered with the wrong thickness of cloth.
In fact, the cloth had already been repaired with a pouch leather patch because it
had failed so quickly because it was too thin. The tracker is a very delicately
balanced device. If the cloth is not perfectly air tight, the thing won't work
right. It is a very difficult pneumatic to recover and, at the same time, is the one
pneumatic where any leakage whatsoever cannot be tolerated.
163) 
164) 
165) 
163) Restoring the play/rewind valve block. I'm always
amazed at how many individual parts are created even when taking apart the smallest and
simplest of player piano devices. These systems are really very complex with tens of
thousands of individual parts, each of which is vital to the functionality of the whole.
164) Putting the play/rewind back together. Note that all the gaskets and all
other perishable components have been replaced.
165) This is another control valve and a cutoff pouch from the drawer.
166) 
167) 
168) 
166) Replacing the pouch inside the cutoff block.
Originally, these got a pouch as well as a cork gasket. The gasket is not needed
provided you cover the entire board with pouch leather when replacing the pouch. In
fact, this device is more likely to stay air tight without an additional gasket.
The pouch leather works as the gasket.
167) The tracker and play/rewind valve are done.
168) Rebuilding the other control valves.
169) 
170) 
171) 
169) The play/rewind pneumatic before work began. Once
again, the cloth covering this was wrong and was leaking even though the age of it was
clearly not that old.
170) This is the trickiest pneumatic to recover in the entire Ampico unit. In
fact, this photo shows that I wasn't thinking. I started out gluing the hinge end of
the pneumatic down first. I had to pull this apart and start over, turning the unit
180 degrees,.
171) The restored play/rewind pneumatic.
172) 
173) 
174) 
172) The rights side of the drawer all restored.
173) The left side. All that remains is to refinish the cover boards and
hardware and polish the brass tracker bar and the drawer will be done.
174) Two sets of dampers. One to the Bush & Lane/Welte that I'm working on
and the set to this piano before work began on them.
175) 
176) 
177) 
175) Preparing to rebush the damper guide rails.
176) Cleaning off the old felt and glue residue from the damper heads and polishing
the damper wires. These wires are bare brass so they also received a coat of lacquer
to prevent them from tarnishing. Usually these wires are nickel plated to prevent
tarnish but this set wasn't.
177) The restored damper guide rails.
178) 
179)
180) 
178) Rebushing the keys.
179) The ivory keytops had failing glue joints. They were holding on and
looked OK when the piano was picked up. However, during the storage of the piano
while it awaited restoration, the joints finally failed and much of the ivory fell off.
The pieces were carefully located so that they were back on the same keys they fell
off of and all the pieces that hadn't fallen off but were weak were removed. Then
the pieces were glued back into place using hide glue that was colored with titanium
dioxide and clamped with pieces of glass to ensure they would be very flat. The
freshly glued ivory was allowed to sit in the clamps over night to ensure that the
moisture of the glue was completely gone before removal of the clamps. If the clamps
were removed too soon, the moisture in the glue could have warped the ivories slightly and
left us with an untidy finished appearance.
180) The restored keyboard. A few months after this photo was taken,
it was discovered that the few ivories that I had not reglued had also, now, come loose.
It would appear from the condition of the ivories as well as the veneer, pin block
and legs that the front of this piano must have been subjected to many decades of
moderately high moisture. The glue has suffered from this exposure. More ivory
restoration was followed up after this photo was taken to catch those pieces that showed
their "true" colors later on.