16' Bourdon Chest Bearer

I am taking Mondays off work at the garden center for the next two months or so giving me some extra time to work on this project.  Yesterday was spent designing and building the 16' Bourdon chest bearers and the notched rack that holds the pipes upright.  The photo at right shows me attaching a brace to the pipe rack.  (As always, click on any photos to see them in Picasa, then click under "Belongs to" on the right hand side to see a whole album.)  All I had to work with was the chest itself, the pipes, and the rack.  Like the other offsets, this needs to be as close to the floor as possible, and even then the upper 4 pipes' mouths will be within 6" behind an adjacent manual windchest.  Not ideal, I know but I really don't have much option.  I had very few parts to work with when figuring out this layout.  That's good because I had the opportunity to design it just how I wanted, but bad because it took a lot of measuring back and forth to get everything just right.  Again, the basement ceilings are too low to set everything up so I took the time to measure twice, cut once and (hopefully) get it right.  Tonight I will be putting on a second coat of shellac.

I have also finished cleaning and rewiring the 16' offset.  The picture shows the freshly cleaned primary valves and exhaust ports.  This chest was different in that the magnets exhaust a primary valve which in turn exhausts the air under the leather pouch.  This arrangment results in a much quicker and more efficient operation of the larger pouches.  The secondary valve cover can be seen in the upper right corner.  These parts received a thorough vacuum cleaning.  The chest had been stored on its back and much dust, lint, and chunks of dirt had fallen in.  After reassembly I tested everything and the whole chest seems to work properly.  Although the basement ceilings are too low to set up the whole octave, I couldn't resist the temptation to dig out the low C pipe and attach it to it's toe hole with some flexible tubing.  The soft low rumble could be felt as much as heard!  That alone is reason enough to install real pipes in any setting!  It provides another dose of inspiration to keep me motivated! 

8' Principal / Dulciana Offset

Yesterday I spent the entire day working with the 8' P/D offset chest.  Rewiring was completed a week ago, but I have now finished building the new chest bearers.  I also puzzled together the rack boards to hold the pipes upright.  Most of the pieces were there but some needed to be rebuilt.  Having been installed in several different locations over the years left a lot of unused screw holes that led to a lot of confusion.  Also, there was writing on the boards refering to "oboe left front" etc. that added to the confusion.  I eventually got it all sorted out and assembled.  I also sanded all the racks and supports rather agressively.  They had never been coated with shellac or other finish and the dirt was deeply embedded.  I applied two coats of amber shellac and the wood is just beautiful!

One major hurdle was the arrangment of these two octaves of pipes.  The longest pipe measures around 9' tall without the windchest.  My living room ceilings are 8' 3" so I need to have them mitered in order to fit.  Some pipes are mitered all ready, but a few more need to be done.  I hope Gene Bedient and his crew can fit my mitering into their schedule since I don't have the expertise or equipment to do it.  I unpacked most of the bass pipes and put them on the chest.  I set this up in the adjacent unfinished store room since the ceiling in my workshop is 7' and the store room is 8' 4" between the floor joists.  I was finally able to actually see how this all comes together.  When I move it upstairs this chest will be in front of the fake fireplace mantle.  My plan is to miter the Principal (back of the chest) 180 degrees behind the pipe.  This puts the end of the longest pipe about 4" above the mantel.  Tuning will be a pain, but the pipes have roll-down slots rather than tuning collars so they should hold their tune pretty well.  The Dulciana (front of the chest) will be mitered either 90 or 180 degrees in front of the pipe.  These will be sticking out above the trebles of the Dulciana Celeste rank, so there is no fear of them being in the way of other pipes.

Freshly cleaned pouch boards are pictured below.

Next step will be the 16' Bourdon chest:  rewiring, bearers, and support racks.

Offset Windchests

I have spent the last week working on the offset windchests.  I figured they would be smallest, simplest, and easiest to start with.  I opened the 8' Gedeckt and 8' Principal/Dulciana chests and then removed the pouch boards for inspection.  The leather is in fine shape- no need to replace.  I unsoldered each positive wire from its magnet and removed all the old cotton-covered wire.  I didn't touch the negative wire inside the chest, but am replacing the negative outside the chest to the console.  I then strung new wires to each magnet following an organ wiring color code chart.  I am leaving 20' of cable coming out of each chest since I know I will need to move chests in order to access everything for tuning and service.  I need to pick up the junctions from Bedient Organs today so I can attach the female end of the plug to the cable.  Everything got a good vacuuming with an upholstry brush attachment on my shop-vac.  While I had the chest open I filled all the screw holes that went all the way through the chest wall- hopefully I got all the air leaks.  Now it's ready for reassembly.

My plan is to completely finish each chest and get it 100% ready for installation.  That means I need to build new stands and racks at just the right height so all the pipes fit under my ceiling and don't block each other.  It has been a bit of a challenge, since the basement has 7' ceilings and I can't actually set things up.  I've had a lot of running back and forth from pipe tray to windchest to drawing board.  I'm pretty sure I have it all figured out.  I realized that I had to put the 8' Gedeckt and 8' Principal/Dulciana offsets as close to the floor as possible.  The problem was the wind inlets were on the bottom of the chest.  Using PVC fittings would have forced me to put the chest a lot higher than I wanted.  I had to build new wood inlets so the bottom of the chests would be exactly 4-1/4" above the floor.  Thankfully the 16' Gedeckt offset already had this set-up so I had a model to follow.  Today I will put a coat of shellac on the new wood parts and we will be good to go!  Starting the woodworking portion of the project made me think about helping grandpa in his wood shop when I was a kid.  Building a birdhouse was pretty cool for a 8-year-old.  Looking back I really am grateful that I had grandpa there to teach me some woodworking skills.  Thanks Grandpa!

New Rohrflote, Visit to Temple Organs

Earlier this week I was in Kansas City at the Western Nursery Trade Show.  On the way back to Lincoln we stopped at Temple Organs in St. Joeseph, MO to pick up a Rohrflote and have a look around.  Owner David Cool services the organ at my church (St. Andrew's Lutheran) and I have been discussing my home project with him.  Since my console was designed for 5 unified ranks and the organ came with only 4 ranks, I get to pick one to add.  He recommended a celeste of some sort or a contrasting flute at 4' & 2' pitch.  He also mentioned a 4' Rohrflote built by Moller that he had on hand.  He said it would be very appropriate in a small residential instrument.  I thought it would be very nice to have a 2' stop available on the great (everything is currenly 8' or 4', no mixtures or mutations).  I also thought it would be cool to give the organ a bit of a German accent!  I decided to go with the 4' Rohrflote, but haven't given up on the celeste idea.  I haven't heard the Rohr played, but head voicer Jon Bertschinger said the scale is not too wide and it's not too heavy on fundamental.  He voiced it for 3" of wind and included a top octave to complete the 2' compass for unification.  4'C is pictured.  Jon also took the time to show me a project on their drawing board and another waiting to go out the door.  Thanks, Jon!

After getting home, I got an email from Trevor Dodd who owned my organ two owners ago.  He pointed out that the rank labeled "Stopped Diapason" is actually a Rohrflote!  Now I have two!  The 8' octave is completely covered, but from 4' C up it is a Rohr.  My plan is to get everything up and running as it is and see how it sounds.  I'll keep my eye out for a true 85 note Gedeckt and swap them out some day.  I need to find a windchest for the new Rohr, but Gene Bedient pointed out that it isn't very difficult to build a direct electric chest myself.  We will see.  If I am building a chest anyway, I might as well make it two ranks and plan for that celeste someday.  Now if I can just wire it into my relay...

My soldering station is on order and should be here by the weekend so I can start practicing that skill.  I decided to go with the Weller WES51.  Thanks to everyone from the forums who chimed in with their recommendations for makes and models!