Restoration of a Simplex Player Mechanism for Paul
Wetzel
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1) The pictures of this project started a little late. Here, you see the
pneumatics have already been removed and the old cloth cleaned off.
2) Now the valve boards of these "unit" pneumatics have been split apart
so that I can get to the valves and pouches for replacement.
3) A sample of releathered valves and a cleaned valve seat.
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4) Right side up and upside down shots of the three boards to each pneumatic,
showing how the three boards are made. Note that the valve and pouch wells have been
resealed with shellac and the valve seats cleaned.
5) The new pouches have now been installed.
6) The lifter discs which carry the motion of the pouch to the valve have been glued
into place. A dot of masking tape was applied to the pouches as they were sealed.
This prevented the sealant from soaking in at the very center of the pouches.
After the sealant was dry and dusted with talc, the dots were removed. This
enabled the glue which holds the lifter discs to be able to really grab the pouches
permanently.
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7) Installing new hinges on the pneumatics after having glued the two boards that
form the valve portion of the unit pneumatics back together.
8) The first stage in recovering the pneumatics with rubber cloth. The hinge
ends are glued on first in this case in order to ensure that the holes for signal and wind
pass through correctly.
9) The wind motor before it was rebuilt.
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10) The pneumatics after recovering. Simplex pneumatics are one of the more
challenging pneumatics to recover. This photo also shows that new cork gaskets have
also been glued into place.
11) Testing each pneumatic to ensure that it is air tight and works perfectly.
12) Replacing all the leather nuts and felt punchings on the lifter rods.
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13) The lifter fingers have been reinstalled. Each one is seated in a bed of
fresh burnt shellac as well as being screwed down.
14) Putting the pneumatic stack back together. A couple of the outside valve
seats showed signs of slight leaks which were missed during testing. A sealant was
applied to the outside of these seats to ensure that they remain air tight.
15) The stack further assembled.
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16) All back together again and ready to install back into the piano.
17) The tracking mechanism had a friction component which was missing. This
picture shows that I had to make a new one to install onto the tracker since replacement
parts for that component were not readily available. It worked just fine!
18) The completed stack from another angle.
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19) The rebuilt pump. Due to time constraints, I was unable to photograph
detailed pictures of the rebuilding of the pump.
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Reserved.