It's been a slow couple of weeks in the organ shop. Last weekend I went back home to the farm to "stock up on pork" for the year. Plus I am having new exterior doors installed on the house and I am about to start painting one and staining & varnishing the other.
I have found time in between it all to modify the Oboe windchest and build the chest bearer for it. The first step was to take the long one-rank windchest with two rows of pipes and modify it into a short chest with four rows of pipes. The plan was to cut it in half and turn it back on itself so all the bass pipes are at one end and the trebels at the other. There are two pouch boards in the chest, separated at the center, which I removed. I measured, re-measured, re-re-measured, and re-re-re-measured to make sure that I wouldn't mess it up. I put a miter box-like jig on the chest and anxiously began sawing. I was really nervous about this because if the cut wan't perfect, the chest would be ruined. I cut all the way through and when I put the two halves side by side, I realized that I did indeed cut it exactly in half, but there was a slight bow to the cut. It took a lot of sanding to even it off, and the last little bit of curvature was absorbed by the cork gasket I placed between the original chest and the new end cap. I added a new lip for the chest to rest on and attached it firmly with big wood screws and some six-inch long doweling pins. I think it's good as new, but we'll see after I put wind in it. I have not put wind inlets in yet. I will add those after I decide what type of PVC flange to use. Finally, I rebuilt the pipe supports which had become rather warped over the years and modified the rack board to fit the new chest configuration.I then replaced all the wiring in the chest and gave it a thorough cleaning. Cleaning was especially important because the reed pipes are especially susceptible to problems with dirt and dust.
Next, I built the chest bearers. This too took a lot of measuring because I want the enclosure as big as possible without running into the ceiling (of course). I also made it as sturdy as possible as the mostly lead pipes and the enclosure and shades are quite heavy. Picture at right shows the finished modified chest on its bearers with the repaired support. Two coats of shellac and another item is checked off the to-do list. Now it's on to the enclosure itself.