Blower

My blower was manufactured by the Kinetic Blower Company of Hagerstown, Maryland.  If I'm interpreting the tag correctly, it puts out 5" static wind pressure and delivers 500 cubic feet per minute.  By all my calculations that should be plenty.  It has a 3/4 h.p., 110 v., single phase motor.

I built a rack for holding both the blower and reservoir, the reservoir above and the blower below.  The reservoir is as close to the ceiling as possible so the wind trunk can be as short as possible.  (Reservoir details in the next post).  The blower is as close to the reservoir as possible to avoid drawing in cold basement floor air.  It also prevents any dampness from getting to the blower.  The blower is mounted on rubber vibration isolating grommets and the connection to the reservoir is padded with thick foam rubber.  I don't want any vibrations coming up from the blower to the living room.  Probably overkill, but I wanted to be sure.

I became a bit concerned about it though when I had it set up for testing.  It seemed to get rather hot, and it had a heck of a time recovering after I played a big chord.  The motor and impellers are both enclosed inside a shell with just a little access panel.  It was hard to read anything on the motor itself or get in there to service it.  I asked about the overheating on the DIYapason list and someone suggested I make sure the motor is turning the right direction.  I thought it odd that it might be in there backwards, but that would explain the lack of wind and over heating.  I opened the access door and turned it on momentarily.  Sure enough, it was going backwards!  This particular motor has a shaft going out each end, so it was an understandable mistake.  I tried finding the little electrical box so I could switch the wires and turn it the other way, but I couldn't find it.  So, I took the whole thing apart to turn the motor 180 degrees.  (It turns out the electrical box was covered by the impeller).  Once I had the motor out of the housing and removed the impellers, I noticed it was turning really hard by hand- it felt like a bearing was going out.  Since I had it apart, I decided it was time to take it in.  Fuller Electric Motor Service in Lincoln quickly determined that yes, there was a bearing going out and that was the real reason for the overheating.  They replaced both bearings, installed a new capacitor, replaced a broken safety switch, and replaced a rubber mount.  They also gave it a good cleaning.  They said the motor is probably over 50 years old, but built like a tank.  Definitely worth repairing.  Now it is ready for another 50 years of service.  I put it all back together and now it can run for an hour and barely gets warm.

Blower Album

Blower Room

The blower and wind reservoir will be located in their own room in the basement immediately below the organ.  Unfortunately, that space had been my wood shop all this time!  Now that the vast majority of cutting and sanding is finished, I am willing to clean out the wood shop, move most of the equipment into the assembly room, and start remodeling.

I began by removing two tiles from in front of the fake fireplace and cut through the sub-flooring.  There is a narrow gap about 4" wide that I will bring the wind trunk up through.  It will take a little more engineering than I had planned on, but I can make it work!  The basement walls are sound in spite of the cracks and gaps, but I had water in the basement on a regular basis until I had a new driveway poured a few years ago.  All the old drywall had to go.  I also replaced the window in that room with a new energy efficient window to match the windows I installed shortly after buying the house.  I then began framing up the new walls.  I also installed a beam under the organ and supported it with screw type support posts.  I don't know how much the organ will weigh, but I don't want to take any chances.  I can now park a semi tractor in the living room if I want!  I put a plastic vapor barrier between the studs and the cement block wall too.

After framing came the electrical.  I hired an electrician to install a sub-panel in the blower room so all of the organ will be on its own dedicated circuit from the main breaker.  Then I ran all the wiring out from the sub-panel myself.  There is a switched outlet that is controlled by the power switch in the console.  That turns on the rectifier and the blower.  I ran another switched circuit to the console to turn on the console lights.  I could have wired them to the main switch, but I think I will want to be able to turn the lights on without turning on the organ sometimes.  I will loose some lighting in the living room after the installation, so the music and pedal light might need to serve as accent lighting.  Other circuits are for lights in the ceiling of the blower room and the new adjacent walk-in pantry, and I put in plenty of wall outlets.  There never was enough power in that room back when it was a wood shop.  There is also a 220v circuit for the baseboard heater.  Being in the northwest corner of the basement and having a window, and no furnace vent, I am afraid that the room will get really cold in the winter.  Baseboard heater will take care of that.

All four walls and the ceiling are well insulated not only for temperature, but also for sound.  I want the blower to be inaudible while playing.  I used mold-resistant drywall knowing the history of moisture problems.  Even though the new driveway fixed most of the problem, if we have a real gully washer the gutters overflow and a little moisture comes in.  I have done a little drywall work before, and this went pretty well.  The trickiest thing was getting neat corners where two walls meet the ceiling.  I installed an insulated exterior door into the room.  My thought was to keep the room airtight except for the one opening covered with a furnace filter.  I know this is probably overkill, but in the future when I'm doing woodworking in the basement I want to be sure to keep the air in the organ clean.  I primed and then put on two coats of paint and allowed it to cure pretty well before installing the light fixture and heater.

 Blower Room Album

Front Panel

Since the organ is going to be the focal point of my living room and I went to all the trouble to refinish the console and build the swell box out of oak, I wanted to dress up the main wind chest to match.  I also wanted to hide all the wind lines and wiring under it.  I decided to make a panel that could be removed for tuning access but looks like it is part of the wind chest.  The console is not ornate, and my house is also not ornate so I didn't have much for inspiration.  But there is one notable feature in the house.  My house was built in 1940 by a prolific contractor named Roger Brown.  Virtually all "Brown-built" homes have at least one arched doorway somewhere in them.  I have an arch between foyer and living room, living room and dining room, and kitchen and breakfast nook.  I have already repeated this arch in the details of the dining table I chose and in the light fixture in the dining room.  I also carried it out into the garden making the outer edge of my brick patio the same arch.  It made sense to apply that to the organ as well.

I designed the panel to have two arches since one would have been disproportionate and three would have been too busy.  I used pocket screws to assemble it.  There is a base board identical to the baseboard in the living room and the trim at the top is the same trim I used on the swell box and the chimes.  It is finished to match.  The album doesn't have any photos of the final product because the finish is rather dark and the details didn't show up well.  Beside that, I don't want to give away too much of how it will all look after the final installation!

Front Panel Album

2 2/3' Nasat Pipes & Chest

My plan is to tune the organ in some slightly unequal temperament.  If I am practicing for hours with a limited number of ranks, I would at least like to have the color and spice of an unequal temperament to liven things up.  Nothing drastic, probably Bach/Lehman 1722 or maybe Vallotti.  If I do this, the unified mutation will not sound very good, so I opted to have an independent 2 2/3' Nasat.  To do this, I had to trick the console into playing the new rank.  First, I disconnected the jumper wire in the relay connecting middle C with soprano G, etc.  Then I connected a new cable so that the contacts in the 2 2/3' relay now go to their own junction and ultimately their own chest.

I considered several options for the pipes themselves.  Possibly a tapered rank, or maybe an open flute?  Do I want it more flutey or more principal?  All I knew is that I wanted something that would compliment my existing ranks and provide a spicy solo registration with the 8' Gedeckt.  I found a 1 1/3' mutation that had been cut-down and revoiced from a string rank.  The tone was described as a flute-principal hybrid, not too loud, perfect for a home organ.  I wanted it to be 2 2/3', so I thought if I got these and put a few pipes with it from a spare, damaged principal rank I had, I could take it down to about bottom G and let the very bottom of the compass remain unified.  I decided to go that route and will figure out the voicing issues later.

When the pipes arrived, I set about designing the windchest.  The only place left for more pipes is on the fake mantel over the fake fireplace behind the Bourdon.  Rather than try to find the prefect chest for this tight application, I decided to design and build my own.  Since the two-rank chest I built earlier worked  alright, I decided to design this in the same style- vinyl tubing connecting the magnets to the pouch boards.  It is much more compact though, with three rows of pipes, chromatically.  There will be just enough space to reach around the Bourdon and tune the Nasat.  Construction of the chest went as expected and it worked fine when I tested it.  My only concern is that this rank is rather far from the reservoir, so if the wind gets bouncy on this, I may have to add a concussion bellows to the chest.  That remains to be seen.

Below is a link to a Picasa Web Album with more photos.  If you have been following this project, you will remember that I promised to include a video of laying the pneumatic pouches after I forgot to make one when I was building the two-rank chest.  Well, the video is in this album, so check it out!

Nasat Chest Album

Gedeckt Part 1: Cleaning the Pipes

I'm presenting my work on the stopped wood flute in four posts, much like I did with building the wind chest.  I started with cleaning.

All I know about these pipes is they came from "an old tracker".  I'm guessing late 19th or very early 20th century.  Of course, they were covered in 100 year's worth of dirt, soot, and grime.  I started by wiping them down with a well-wrung-out wash cloth and some diluted Murphy's Oil Soap.  I was very careful not to get anything too wet for fear of warping the wood.  I was especially careful around the flue opening.

Next, I marked the exact position of the lower lip and removed the three screws holding it in place.  Apparently the pipes had been in a church with a coal furnace.  The blower was probably located in the furnace room judging by the amount of soot in the flue.  I gave each surface a gentle scrub with an old, dry, toothbrush while running the shop-vac nearby to suck away the soot.  Some of the nicking in the flue was partially clogged with soot, so I'm thinking the pipes will sound better for the cleaning.  I put the lower lips back in exactly the same place they were originally.  I then removed the stopper to clean inside the pipe body.  I used the shop-vac and brush combo with success on most pipes.  Some of them had residue from the stoppers caked on as well.  I think it may have been lamb tallow or some other such lubricant but I'm not sure.  Most of it came off with a putty knife, but I had to resort to some gentle sanding on a few of them.  I also repaired a few loose feet and loose stopper handles.

Finally, I wanted to protect the wood somehow.  The original finish was very thin.  So thin that I wondered of some pipes were finished at all.  I didn't want to try stripping whatever was there, but I was worried that any varnish or other finish would not adhere.  The pipes won't see any physical wear after they're installed so they didn't need a thick finish.  I decided to go with a simple, light coat of furniture wax, buffed to nice sheen.

Gedeckt Cleaning Album

Gedeckt Part 2: Removing the Old Leather

The next step was to re-leather the stoppers.  The stoppers must have an air-tight seal or the pipe won't speak properly.  This seal is accomplished with a leather gasket around the stopper.  It needs to have a perfect fit-  Too tight and the pipe could crack and it is hard to tune.  Too loose and the pipe won't speak or stay in tune.  The old leather seemed to be about 100 years old and was disintegrating with dry rot.  It had to be replaced.

The leather was probably attached with hide glue originally.  This is good because it is possible to remove it some day when re-packing the stoppers.  I began by scraping as much leather off as possible with a putty knife and then a small paint scraper.  The stoppers of the 16' Bourdon also had a strip of felt around them for added cushion, relieving some tension when the wood expands and contracts with seasonal changes.  This was moth-eaten and disintegrating too, so it had to be replaced as well.

The old hide glue can be removed with heat and moisture.  I asked around on the organ building forums how to go about doing this.  One suggestion was to buy a used or cheap clothes iron (it will be ruined for dress clothes almost immediately) and set it on high heat.  Then lay an almost dripping wet wash cloth over the stopper (use old ones here too).  Then apply the iron for a few seconds to steam.  I was a little worried about warping or cracking the wood, but it seemed to be the best option.  I decided to try it and it worked beautifully.  Most of the glue came off with the first steaming.  Otherwise, a little more scraping with the putty knife and another steaming took care of it!

Removing Old Leather Album

Gedeckt Part 3: Applying New Leather

After I cleaned all the stoppers, it was time to apply the new leather.  I started with the largest first (low C) and worked my way up since these would take the largest pieces of leather.  Smaller stoppers could be done with smaller scraps.  First, I cut strips of felt just a bit thicker than the originals, assuming it had compressed over the last century.  I glued it to the stopper with fish glue.  Fish glue is similar to hide glue except it can be applied at room temperature (hide glue requires a heated pot) and is premixed (hide glue has to be mixed fresh daily).

Next, I cut strips of white alum valve leather to cover the sides of the stopper.  Each hide is thickest on the animal's back and thinnest on it's belly.  I was able to cut strips of leather from various parts of the hide to select the best fit for each stopper before gluing it on.  I only glued the top and bottom edges- I didn't glue the leather to the felt.  This allows for some flexibility as the stopper conforms to the inside of the pipe for a tight seal.  The leather on the larger stoppers was originally nailed on with tacks too, so I nailed it back on again.  From 8' C up there was no felt so I just glued the leather to the wood, again only at the top and bottom edge.  The smaller stoppers were glued only at the bottom edge.  Most leather has a smooth side and a textured side.  I glued the smooth side to the stopper and left the textured side out to help grip the inside of the pipe and help it stay in tune better.  I then neatly trimmed the corners to finish them.

I let the glue cure very well over night before replacing the stoppers.  This rank had pierced stoppers from tenor F on up to the top.  This gives the rank a bit brighter color, more like a Chimney Flute.  I had already decided to add a colorful Chimney Flute that I was rather fond of and I was concerned that the tone would be too similar.  I wanted my Gedeckt to have more of a hollow, dull sound for contrast.  I experimented with coverig the chimneys with blue masking tape to listen to the tone quality.  Also, I
would have to tune the completely covered pipes a little sharper, so I wanted to make sure the pipes still spoke well if completely covered.  The experiment seemed to work fine.  The tone is a bit duller and softer too.  I 'permanently' closed the chimneys by gluing a small piece of leather on the inside of the stopper, over the chimney hole.  Some day if I change my mind and want to open the chimneys up again I can easily remove the leather.

There are a ton of photos in this album.  I took pictures of each step on several different sizes.  There are a lot of little steps.  I was also experimenting with the new iPhone and decided to make a video of the process.  The video doesn't work here in the blog so I'm going to have to figure out how to post it on YouTube and just link to it there.

Applying New Leather Album

Gedeckt Part 4: Refinishing the 16' Bourdon

The last step with the wood pipes was refinishing the 16' Bourdon.  These 12 pipes did not belong with the rest of the rank originally, but I wanted them to look like they did.  The Bourdon was painted grey, presumably to match metal pipes in the original installation.  I thought about stripping the grey paint, sanding them down, then staining and varnishing them to match.  Then I had visions of the console- picking the wood putty out of the grain with an awl and I quickly abandoned that idea.  I took a treble pipe to Sherwin-Williams to find a shade of brown that was close enough.  I explained to the sales lady what I was working on, and she suggested I try painting a faux wood grain.  She dragged a stain-soaked rag over a paint color swatch and I was impressed at the result.  I bought a can of Butterscotch paint and headed home.

Before I could paint, I had to sand the glossy grey paint so the new would stick.  I sanded out many scratches and gouges, but didn't worry about removing all the old paint.  I had the stoppers out for re-leathering and I also removed the lower lip and the foot so I could paint them separately.  The stopper handles were originally black, so I gave a fresh coat of black paint.  The lower lips of the 8' octave are already painted black so I painted these to match, being careful to not get paint near the wind way.  The feet were various colors and finishes, so I painted them all black so they would match.  Then I turned to the pipes themselves and gave them two coats of Butterscotch latex paint.  The color was alarming, but I trusted my color swatch and forged ahead.  I did not paint the upper lip either.  It had not been painted grey and I figured several coats of finish might affect the voicing. I left them the original bare wood.  I let the paint cure for 2 weeks.

For the first coat of stain, I used some Sherwin-Williams "Oak Mantle" that I already had on hand from another project.  I used a sopping-wet rag to wipe the stain on irregularly, then dragged the rag over it to give it some wood grain.  I started with low C because it will be hidden behind the swell box.  By the time I got to pipes F through B (which will be prominently visible) I had my technique down pretty well.  I let the stain cure for a couple days before making any judgments.

When dry, I decided the color was a little too reddish and light.  I had a can of 'Pecan' stain too that had a rather dark pigment without much color in the carrier.  This time, I used a squirt bottle to apply the stain.  A bit more messy, but a lot faster and a lot more fun!  I wanted to add a few darker highlights (should that be 'lowlights'?) rather than make it uniformly darker.  The squirt bottle worked very well.  I dragged the rag through the stain again to give some graining.  It was tricky to create convincing graining on the mitered portions, but it worked well enough.

I let the stain cure for a few days before applying a coat of satin varnish.  On close inspection, it's obviously wood that's been painted to look like wood.  But from a distance and when your eye is distracted by the rest of the organ, I think it is pretty effective.  I also used this technique to paint a previously painted cold-air-return grate in the living room to match the oak trim and it worked pretty well on that too!  In the comparison picture below, the Bourdon are on the left and the Gedeckt are on the right.

 Bourdon Refinishing Album

Prinzipal Racking

The new Prinzipal rank I bought is a bit smaller scale (diameter) than the Diapason originally planted on my main chest.  The holes in the rack board were quite a bit too large.  Plus, the original rack board had been damaged and would have needed to be replaced any way.  Since this rack is front and center, I wanted it to look especially nice.

Using the original as a guide, I marked all the holes on a piece of new 1/2" thick poplar.  I found that Forstner drill bits made good centering guides.  If I didn't have a drill bit close enough to the original hole, I did my best to eyeball it.  I also marked the holes for the rack pins this way.

After marking the holes, I used my racking jig and a calipers to measure each pipe.  I added a little bit to each diameter because it was difficult to get the rack perfectly centered over the toe holes.  I figured it would be easier to drill big holes and then make each pipe perfectly plumb by felting the holes as needed.  I wrote the hole size needed on the blue tape on the rack board so I would be sure to drill the right size hole.  I then drilled the appropriate size holes.  As planned, many holes were too large and I wanted these pipes to be perfectly plumb (being the facade, so to speak) so I added felt as needed to make them stand perfectly upright.

Finally, I added a strip of oak trim to the front edge of the rack board to dress it up and match the finish of the console and swell box.

Prinzipal Racking Album

16' Reed Offset

Of course, I wanted to extend my Oboe down to 16' (who doesn't want a 16' reed in their house organ?).  I really don't want anything that will shake the house.  Instead I wanted something that would just beef up and color the Bourdon.  I had been keeping an eye out for just about any reed extension (12 notes) with half-length resonators, 3" wind pressure, and not too loud.  I finally found 12 pipes listed on churchorgantrader.com.  They were originally built by Jerome B. Meyer as a clarinet but had quarter-length resonators.  Someone else extended the resonators to half-length and mitered them to fit under an 8' ceiling.  They needed a little work and the price was acceptable, but I knew it would be tough to find something perfect.

I bought these and they came with a small direct-electric chest.  The chest wasn't designed specifically for the pipes, but it should work, right?  Nope.  The toe holes in the chest were much smaller than the toe holes in the pipes.  Plus, I wasn't crazy about having one direct-electric chest with an otherwise electro-pneumatic organ.  So I set about building an offset chest.

The process was much like the chest I built for the Celeste and Rohrflöte.  The design was a little different though.  I put the magnets on the bottom of the chest and ran the vinyl tubing straight down instead of into the side with borings leading to the magnets.  This allowed the chest to be more compact and was a little easier to build.  The drawback is that if I ever need to do anything with the magnet, port, or armature, it will be a PAIN to access.  It worked when it was finished so I'm crossing my fingers.  The picture here shows the chest lying on its back side on my workbench.

The unique thing about this chest is that it is not chromatic.  It is random.  If you look at the album link at the bottom of this text you will see the complex miters of the resonators.  I could either have Bedient un-miter and then re-miter them to fit on a normal chromatic chest, or I could arrange the chest so all the pipes make room for each other.  I wanted to do the latter, but there wasn't a good way to do it.  I solved the problem by making the rack board so some of the pipes lean toward the wall and some lean out into the room a bit.  Not much, but enough that the miters will clear each other.  It will look a little goofy, but they will be in the far back corner (pity the organ tuner!) so no one will see them.

Reed Offset Album

Chimes

The one part I got done over the summer was to get the chime action completely refurbished.  I purchased a used 25-note set of chimes with striker action built by Maas-Rowe.  As always, I began with a thorough cleaning.  This time, it was mostly with the Shop-Vac.  I didn't want to get any of the components wet with soapy water.  While cleaning, I noticed two electrical components with broken wires going into them.  I have a copy of the original schematic and spec sheet from Maas-Rowe, but I wasn't sure exactly what I was looking for.  I searched online to try to identify them and find a replacement, but nothing was obvious.  I checked with the other builders on the DIYapason forum, but no one there was certain what they were.  One person directed me to justradios.com, a website specializing in new components for antique radios and televisions.  I emailed back and forth with the owner and he was able to decipher the color coded dots on my components.  It turns out that this thing is a resistor and a capacitor built into one unit.  Their purpose is to help reduce sparking in the under-key contacts and also reduce interference with PA systems in a church.  I purchased 30 new resistors and capacitors so I would be able to replace any that fail in the future and have a few extras, just in case.  I soldered the two components in place, in parallel, just like the diagram showed and it seemed to reduce sparking a little.  They don't spark any more than the other contacts.  I won't have a PA system of course, so that doesn't really matter.

Next was to replace the old or missing striker tips.  There is little leather pad on the end of each striker to cushion the blow and create a more mellow tone.  Several of these were missing so I contacted Maas-Rowe to purchase replacements.  I was able to easily remove the old ones with a utility knife and clean the metal surface with a firm scraping.  The new tips are glued on with Pli-o-bond adhesive.  I actually put two tips on each striker for an even more mellow sound.

I also ordered from Maas-Rowe a new chime volume switch.  The volume is controlled by the voltage delivered to each striker.  There is a dedicated transformer reducing typical 110v household current to about 24v direct current.  This transformer can produce voltages from 15v to 28v.  Lower voltage is softer sound and higher is louder.  I had a couple of switches that came with the chimes, but they were for other types of chimes and didn't have 7 power levels.  I ran into some trouble though when I went to install the switch in the console.  There is a wooden bracket very close to the hole where the knob goes through board.  I went to the hardware store expecting to find an extension shaft and a collar, but had no luck.  I opted for a little piece of copper pipe and matching brass shaft.  I used a tap and die set to thread a couple holes through which I put set screws to hold the two firmly together.  It worked perfectly and the switch is now in the console.

The last part of this phase was to build the decorative canopy that hides the chime action.  I built this out of oak and used the same trim and molding as I will use on the decorative panel covering all the windlines and wires.  I used the same finish schedule and it is a perfect match to the swell box and console.  And, I built, stained, and varnished a mounting bracket that will make it all much easier to install.  A note on the pictures-  some of these are really grainy.  Apparently I bumped the exposure compensation button on the camera and didn't realize it for a while.

Chimes Album

Engraving

(Sorry for the belated post as I get caught up.  This should have gone up in April.)

My console was originally designed to play five ranks (Diapason, Stopped Flute, Salicional, Dulciana, & Oboe).  I have expanded it to seven, adding an independent mutation and a celeste, and swapping out the Dulciana for a Chimney Flute.  These changes meant that I needed to have my stop tabs re-engraved.  I debated for quite some time how to name the unified stops.  On one hand, I could simply call them what they are (Gedeckt 8', Gedeckt 4', Gedeckt 2', etc.) which is honest, but boring.  Or, I could be more creative and choose names that hint at the parent rank, but look more like what one might find on a straight organ (Bordun 8', Stopped Flute 4', Piccolo 2', etc.)  Although the former is easier for a guest to register, I am the one who will be playing it 99% of the time.  I opted to be a bit more creative and go with the latter option.  Considering my love of Bach, Buxtehude, Reger, etc. I gave the stops a decidedly German accent.  For example, the Stopped Flute is now:  Untersatz 16', Holzbordun 8', Gedeckt 4', and Bauernflote 2'.  I will try to add a complete stop list sometime, probably as a pdf, but I don't have that ready at the moment.  Also, the console did not have any nameplates identifying the divisions, swell shoes, etc.  Apparently they were kept by a previous owner because they were in better condition than the ones he had on another console.  I needed to replace these name plates and have the stop tabs planed off, buffed, and re-engraved with the new names.  I also wanted to have a builder's name plate engraved, since the organ isn't really enough of any one builder to call it his own.  After all, I am building a brand-new instrument from used parts, right?

I contacted Hesco, Inc. in Maryland and they were able to do all I wanted.  They specialize in engraving parts for organs, especially WurliTzer theatre organs.  I chose a font that was designed in the late 1930's, which is about the time when both my console and my house were built.  I sent the freshly-bleached stop tabs out for them to re-engrave.  They provided new name plates.  I was thrilled when they arrived back to me!  I got them all installed the next weekend.  Now the console is pretty much done, except for hardwiring the electrical, but I can't do that until it is in the living room.  I will also get a close-up photo up here as a 'sneak peek', but the console looks so finished now, I want to save it for the final installation photos!

Summer Projects

Yes, I know it's December and I am just now updating this blog with summer events.  I'm sorry about that.  It's been busy.

Anyway, I mentioned the new furnace that went in last winter.  During that project, I discovered some termite damage to the house near the front door.  Nothing structural or severe, and the damage may have occurred years ago and the termites are now long gone, but the damage needed to be repaired none the less.  The repairs meant removing the old concrete front stoop, replacing the rotten boards behind it, and repouring the stoop.  I also had the house treated for termites just in case.  I did all the demo and repair work myself and a buddy helped form and pour the new concrete.  It is much bigger now, and there is actually room to stand on the porch and open the door without backing down a step.  I will be dressing it up with Pennsylvania Bluestone on the top and brick veneer around the sides so it all looks original, but the weather got cold before I could get that done.  I will also be installing a paver sidewalk connecting the driveway to the stoop.

A slightly more organ-related project was the installation of wood blinds in the living room.  I have never had any coverings on the windows and I really don't want to be on display as I practice every day.  Plus, I don't want the sun beating through the windows flanking the fireplace for fear that the heat would throw the pipes out of tune.  I feel silly installing fancy blinds only to cover them up with pipes, but that's the way it goes.

I also have new basement windows on order.  One of them will be in the blower room and I want to get a more energy efficient window in that location so the air temperature in the blower room will be more stable.  Those probably won't be installed until spring, unless we get a really nice day in the next few weeks.

I also refurbished the organ chimes this summer and will be updating with that soon.

I am now in the process of restoring the wooden stopped flute pipes and I will update with that info after it is completed, hopefully before Christmas.

Windchest Part 1:

Design & Layout

I am presenting the construction of my two-rank windchest in 4 parts because it would be horribly long to do it as one post.  It is still horribly long.  But then, it was a really big undertaking.  I began this last summer and worked on it off and on until now.  I wanted to wait until it was pretty much done before posting anything.  That's why there hasn't been much activity on this blog this winter, even though I have been working away in the shop.  Plus, this lets me organize it in more chronological order- I actually skipped around a bit when working on it.  Even though this is a blog format, I posted these in reverse order so they should show up on your screen numbers 1-4 as you scroll down.  Start here and keep reading:

From the start of this whole project, I had the opportunity to add one rank of pipes, possibly two if I wanted a Celeste.  None of these extra pipes were included with my initial purchase, nor was a windchest included to play them.  After deciding to add a Rohrflöte and String Celeste I began searching for an appropriate chest.  I wanted a two-rank chest, "A" layout (largest pipes in the center), electro-pneumatic (EP) action, and absolutely no more than 85 inches long.  Oh- and it had to be within a day's drive of Lincoln so I could go pick it up.  I posted a want-ad on churchorgantrader.com and other websites and checked eBay daily for almost a year with no luck.  What are the chances of finding a used chest exactly as I wanted?  Slim.  I thought about building a Direct-Electric (DE) chest because it would be easier and quicker than EP.  On the other hand, it would cost more money and I wasn't too fond of having two types of action in the same instrument.

A couple years ago, I was talking to Fred Zander (then at Bedient Organs) about replacing a few water damaged pouches in my existing chest.  I mentioned my search for the ideal EP chest and my plan to just build a DE chest instead.  He really didn't like the idea of mixing the actions either.  He pointed out that building EP chests isn't all that difficult, as long as a person's woodworking skills are precise.  It would take more time, yes, but it would be better to have the whole organ on EP action.

This past summer, I began designing the chest.  I knew the basic dimensions, but I hadn't the foggiest idea about how to design the action.  The Organ Supply Industries catalog shows a couple general styles, but no details or construction diagrams.  I called Fred and we met to discuss my project and he graciously offered me some insights and advice.  We looked at both OSI styles and I decided to go with Style 2, in which the pouch well is connected to the magnet port via a piece of vinyl tubing and a boring in the sidewall of the chest.  I had measured the pipe toe openings, and from that calculated the diameter of each toe hole in the chest (chest hole should be about 1.5 times the diameter of the pipe toe hole). Fortunately, the toe holes were all small enough that I not only didn't need to use primary valves, but all of the pouches could be the same size as well.  That made things a lot simpler.  We decided to use a 7/8" valve on a leather pouch 2 1/4" diameter covering a pouch well 1 3/4" diameter by 9/16" deep.  Armed with this knowledge, I sat down to draw out the chest.

As a landscape designer, I have plenty of drafting paper lying around, so I drew everything out at actual size.  I decided to build two matching but separate chests (one for each rank) rather than one big chest.  Being my first windchest, I thought that might be a bit more manageable.  The spacing of the smaller treble pipes was dictated by the size of the pouch and well.  The spacing of the larger tenor pipes was dictated by the diameter of the pipes themselves.  I didn't want to waste any space, but the pipes couldn't bump shoulders either.  I am an old-school draftsman preferring to work with pen and paper instead of CAD, so I started with one sheet showing the pouch wells and added layers of opaque vellum over the top showing leather pouch placement, toe boards, and rack boards.  Then I added layers under it showing the tubing manifolds, bottom boards, and magnets (shown above right).  I also drew a 1:1 scale drawing of the chest in cross section (shown above left).  Remember- you can see a whole album of photos by clicking on the link at the end of each posting.

Now that I had blueprints, I called Fred and he ordered the leather pouches & fish glue for me from Columbia Organ Leathers.  I then bought premium poplar and plenty of 32-pair cable from Bedient.  The best lumber was used for the pouch boards, second best for the toe boards, and good quality lumber for the side and bottom boards.  One of the members of my church has a very nice wood shop with a planer and he let me come by to plane the rough lumber down to the appropriate thickness.

Now it was time to lay everything out.  I cut the pouch board, toe board, and rack board to the exact length.  Each board received a thorough sanding.  I then positioned one atop the other precisely as they would be in the finished chest and clamped them together.  Although the long pouch boards would each be cut into three sections, I decided to leave it as one for now to improve the accuracy of my layout.  On the top of the rack board I marked the toe holes and rack pin holes.  On the bottom of the pouch board I marked the mounting screw holes and guide dowel holes.  Then I screwed the three together so I could drill the pilot holes.  I drilled the toe hole pilots through the rack board and toe board and barely into the pouch board.  This ensures that the rack board hole is perfectly in line with the toe board, which is perfectly in line with the pouch and valve below.  I did the same with the markings on the bottom board, but only drilled into the toe board, not the rack board.  I drilled a 1/4" hole through the pouch board and into the toe board.  This will hold a dowel that will ensure that the pouch board is mounted precisely in place under the toe board.

Next, I unscrewed the three boards from each other so I could drill the pouch wells.  My pilot bit wasn't long enough to all the way through the pouch board, so I started by continuing the pilot holes all the way through.  I then used a 1 3/4" Forstner bit to bore the pouch well because this type of bit is capable of boring large holes with perfectly flat bottoms.  The pouch wells were bored 9/16" (14mm) deep.  Next, I turned the pouch board over and drilled a 3/8" hole through the center of each well.  This hole will be used to center the pouch when laying it, but then also receive the spring that raises the pouch up after playing.

The next step was to layout, cut, and attach the tubing manifolds.  These manifolds hold the vinyl tubing in place under the pouch board and against the side board.  I cut each manifold and glued on a cork gasket before screwing it to the under side of the pouch board (or onto the side board).  This ensures that the well's exhaust port is perfectly aligned with the hole in the manifold, which is perfectly aligned with the vinyl tubing.  Same with the side board manifolds.  Returning to the pouch boards, I drilled a 3/8" hole through the bottom of the well and half-way through the manifold.  When all had been drilled, I removed the manifolds and drilled a pilot hole the rest of the way through the manifold.  I then drilled a 9/16" hole from the opposite side going just over half-way through.  This hole receives the vinyl tubing, and the 3/8" hole lines up perfectly with the inside of the tubing.  On the side boards, I attached the manifolds and drilled a pilot through the manifold and just deep enough into the side board to mark it.  I then removed the manifolds and drilled a 3/8" hole from the side board side and a 9/16" hole from the vinyl side.  I re-attached the manifolds and drilled a 3/8" diameter hole 9/16" into the side board.

Then, I turned my attention to the toe boards.  I wrote each toe hole's diameter on the toe board in millimeters.  Millimeters are much easier to work with than 32'nds of an inch.  I was sure to drill from the inside out because I wanted as clean and crisp of a hole as possible where the valve seats against the toe board.  If there was tear-out on the top of the board (and there was), it isn't a big deal because most of the tear-out was removed by chamfering the toe holes.  If the chamfer didn't get it all, it still wouldn't affect the pipe speech.  I also drilled the holes to receive the rack pins and I drilled the pilot holes for attaching the toe board to the side boards.  Next, I used a large countersink bit to cut the chamfers in the toe holes.  This sunken, beveled edge seats the pipe foot over the toe hole.

The last step in this phase was drilling the hole through the side board connecting the vinyl tubing with the electro-magnet in the bottom board.  I made a fence to attach to the drill press table, holding the sideboard centered exactly below the drill bit and holding it at a right angle.  With some precise marking, these holes lined up perfectly with the holes going from the vinyl, through the manifold, and into the side board.

Design & Layout Album

Windchest Part 2:

Laying Pouches

The next big step was to lay all the leather pouches on the pouch boards.  If you have been following this blog, you may remember that I didn't get any photos of re-leathering the water-damaged pouches in my existing chest.  I have made up for it now with plenty of pictures (and a video, if I can get it to upload).  I started by cutting the long pouch boards into three sections so they would be easier to handle.  Next, I sanded the edges of the pouch well so they are gently rounded over.  If this edge were left sharp, the pouch would rub against the sharp edge each time it plays and could lead to premature failure.  I also inserted the 1/4" dowel for aligning the pouch board to the toe board.

The steps for laying the pouches were exactly the same here as they were a couple years ago when I was repairing the existing chest, but I will go through it again anyway. Plus, now I have photos to share.

1) Cut a 3/8" dowel about 6 inches long.  This will fit through the spring hole and be used to center the pouch over the well.

2)  Apply a thin layer of fish glue around the pouch well.  Do not use so much that it oozes out onto the pouch board or especially into the well.  Fish glue is used because it holds well, but can be cleanly removed if necessary for future repairs (hopefully not for 50 years!).  It also cleans up easily with water.

3)  Put the dowel through the spring hole and hold it several inches above the glue. Place the pouch atop the dowel with the felt washer centering the pouch on the dowel.

4)  Lower the dowel and pouch until the pouch sits level with the pouch board.  Gently press the pouch to the glue.  Wait a moment for the glue to set and gently press down on the pallet until the felt washer rests on the bottom of the well.

5)  Smooth out any wrinkles in the pouch and press the edge of the pouch firmly to the pouch board.

6)  After 24 hours, use the dowel to raise the pouch as high as it will go without stretching it.  Make sure the pallet will rise high enough to seat against the toe board.  Very gently run your finger around the edge of the well.  Feel for stiff places where glue may have oozed out onto the leather.  Use your finger to break up the glue without stretching the pouch.  Sharp bits of glue can wear a hole in the leather causing early failure.  

7)  Carefully untangle the springs.  Stretch the tail out at one end just a bit so it will hold in the board.  Gently place the spring through its hole.  Make sure the spring seats inside the felt washer.  

8)  Use the fish glue to attach a paper disc that holds the spring in place and seals the pouch well closed.

After all the pouches were laid, I attached little spacer blocks 5mm thick next to each mounting screw.  These ensure that the pouch board is always precisely the correct distance from the toe board.  I then mounted the pouch boards to the toe board.  Since I hadn't yet attached the side boards, I was able to clearly see the valves making contact with the toe boards.  Out of 122 pouches, there was only one that didn't quite seat perfectly.  I remedied this by gently massaging the leather to stretch it ever so slightly.  I put the pouch board back in and it was fine.  This photo shows the pouch board mounted to the toe board, but before I attached the sides.

Laying Pouches Album

Windchest Part 3:
Assembly & Finishing


With the pouches laid, I was ready to begin assembling the chest.  I started by removing the pouch boards and setting them aside so they wouldn't get damaged during assembly and varnishing.  I attached the side boards to the toe boards with wood glue and screws.  Next, I laid out the bottom boards.  I wasn't able to do this earlier because I needed to have the sides attached to the top in order to get everything perfectly aligned.  I marked where each hole came down through the side board and met the bottom board.  This told me where the magnet would need to be positioned, so I made a template and marked all the holes for the magnets.  Each magnet needs one hole lined up with the hole in the side board, an oblong hole for the magnet coil to go through, and two pilot holes for the mounting screws.

I drilled a 3/8" hole to align with the side board hole.  I then drilled a hole just larger than 3/8" for the top of the magnet coil, one for the bottom of the coil, and another to connect the two.  It's hard to explain, so look at this photo (right).  I then drilled the pilot holes for the magnet mounting screws as well as the holes for the screws that will hold the bottom boards in place.  These included a countersink for a washer.

With all the holes drilled and most things assembled, I was ready for staining and varnishing.  I stained the exterior with a "golden maple" water-based analine dye to match my existing chest which had been shellacked.  I considered shellac for the new chest, but decided to go with varnish because it is easier to apply to large surfaces with a rubbing pad (I don't have a spray booth or spray gun).  I used the same type of varnish as I used on the console, applying 6 hand-rubbed coats.  I let it cure for about a week before proceeding.

Once the varnish was cured, I was ready to install the magnets.  I got the magnets from Fred Zander; he salvaged them from an old chest that had been retired during a renovation.  I made sure that each magnet lined up properly with the boring through the wood.  A couple weren't quite perfect, so I carved  away a little excess wood and it will be fine.  I then cut and glued a cork gasket into place to seal up the bottom boards.  I used a 3/8" dowel to punch through the cork at each of the holes and then used my handy crocheting hook to pull the cork disc out.  Also at his time, I cut the hole for the PVC pipe bringing wind into the chest.  It isn't ideal to run the wind line through the bottom board, because it is a pain to get into the chest to service it, but with my layout, I didn't have much choice.

Next, it was time for racking the pipes.  Most organ builders have sizing racks set up with holes pre-drilled into them and you just try each pipe in several holes until you find the right fit, make note of the size, and then drill the appropriate rack hole.  I didn't think it was worth creating this sort of rack if I may never use it again, so I made a little rack that is the same height as the actual rack board.  It has a notch in it and you put the pipe on it's toe hole, set the rack beside it and use a calipers to measure the diameter of the pipe foot at just that point.  I put a piece of masking tape on the rack board and as I measured each pipe foot, I wrote its measurement down.  Then, when I went to drill the holes, I had the measurement right by each pilot hole.

I used several types of bits including an adjustable large circle cutter that worked great for the larger holes.  I also drilled the holes for the rack pins.  I then put the racks in place and checked the size.  I thought it would be better to drill the hole a bit on the small side (if I didn't have the exact size bit) and then open it with a file as needed.  Boy, was that a pain!  It would have been far better to drill the hole a bit too large and shim it down with a piece of felt.  But I got it done.  Note: I haven't reinstalled the pouch boards yet.  I knew that if I was filing the rack holes open, I would get lots of sawdust down in the toe holes.  It was much easier to clean up without the pouch boards in place.

Well, I was finally ready put it all together!  I built chest bearers a week earlier and mounted the two chests in place and turned them upside-down on a work table.  I vacuumed each part clean with the shop-vac, and proceeded to assemble.  First, I attached the manifolds to the pouch boards and then screwed the pouch boards into place.  Then, I attached the manifolds to the side boards.  The next step was to install all the pieces of vinyl tubing connecting the pouch manifold to the side manifold.  I measured them all and cut them with a handy pipe cutter from my irrigation repair kit.  Fortunately, the tubing fit snugly enough that I didn't need to use any glue to hold them in place.

Then it was time to pull out the trusty old wiring color code chart and wire up all those magnets.  I used  #14 tinned copper wire for the common buss and attached one of the magnet wires to it.  I then marked each magnet with its pitch & number and laced out the color-coded cable just like I did in all the other chests and in the console (I almost have the code memorized now...).  I then screwed the bottom boards to the chest and attached the PVC wind lines.  I turned the blower on- no obvious ciphers and no major wind leaks!  I tested a couple valves by unscrewing the magnet port and they worked fine!  Tomorrow I am planning to attach the female end to the cable so I can hook it up to the console and test it for real.  I can't plant any pipes on it yet anyway- it's still upside down on the work bench and I need to wait for my next door neighbor to get home so he can help lift it off.  This thing isn't light!

Assembly & Finishing Album

Windchest Part 4:
Testing


After I planted all the pipes and turned the blower on, there were ciphers all over the place.  I was expecting this.  Even though I cleaned all the parts as thoroughly as possible, there were still bits of sawdust in there and it doesn’t take much to create a cipher.  I unscrewed each port to blow it out.  That took care of them all.  I went to the console and played each note a few times and that created several more ciphers.  (Yes, I also finished rebuilding the keyboards this winter- I need to write about that yet)  Most of these new ciphers were fixed again by opening the port to blow it out.

One stubborn cipher wasn't so easy.  I started looking for the most obvious causes and getting more drastic as needed.  First, I inspected the electrical relays to make sure the contact wasn’t bent, or a scrap of wire hadn’t fallen in, making contact.  Everything looked normal.  I confirmed this by unplugging the rectifier, but leaving the blower on.  The cipher continued, so I knew it wasn’t electrical and had to be a problem in the chest.  I thought the gasket around the side board boring may have been damaged and air was leaking out that way.  Nothing obvious.  Next, I gently inserted a narrow dowel into a properly working toe hole to feel the resistance of the pouch.  I tested the cipher and felt pretty much the same resistance, so I knew the pallet wasn’t wide open.  Air was just barely leaking past the pallet so I knew the problem was either with the pallet itself, the leather, the spring, or the toe board.

I took that section of the chest apart.  With the bottom board off I double-checked the gasket to be sure it wasn’t damaged.  It was fine.  Then I took the manifolds out, as well as the pouch board.  Everything looked OK at first- the toe board was smooth and the pallet was clean.  When I pressed down on the pallet with my finger there was noticeably less resistance than other pallets.  The pallet also didn’t sit level when it was “at rest” in the up position.  The leather didn’t feel too loose or too tight on either side, so I suspected the spring.  I removed the paper cover.  Several extra coils of spring were sitting down in the wooden seat.  I gently removed the spring and compared it to an extra spring that was left over.  The offending spring was about 3/8” inch shorter than the spare and was slightly curved too.  I hadn't noticed this when I was putting the springs in initially.  I checked the seat in the pouch board for splinters that the spring could have been snagging on.  Nothing.  So, I put the new spring in & replaced the paper cover.  The pallet was now level and gave the same resistance as the others.

Optimistic, I put everything back together and fired it up.  Silence.  I played the problem note.  It sounded.  I released the key.  Silence!  It was a bad spring after all.  Yes, it was a pain to tear it all apart, but at least I didn’t need to lay a new pouch; it was a relatively easy fix.  The Rohrflöte is painfully out of tune, but the Hook & Hastings Dulciana (which will be my String Celeste) isn’t too bad.  Even though the 8’ octave isn’t hooked up yet, I couldn’t resist the temptation to play a few verses of a couple hymns.  But, it just made me realize how rusty I am!  I need to finish building this thing so I can actually practice!

Celeste Gang Switch

In order to convince the console to play a sixth rank (it was only designed to play five) I had to get a little creative with the wiring.  To do this, I had to ‘piggy-back’ the Celeste off of the Salicional.  My original plan was to send the electrical current from the Salicional pin to both the Salicional and Celeste pipe.  When the Salicional alone was drawn, only the Salicional would speak because the Celeste stop would actually be a switch in the common negative wire going from the Celeste back to the rectifier.  When both stops are drawn, both ranks would speak.  I was advised that this would probably work, but I would need to install flyback diodes on each magnet because the magnets would act as an inductor and create all sorts of arcing and electric mayhem in the console.  I don’t know much about electronics and I have no clue how to determine the correct size and capacity diode to use.

Plan B involved building a gang switch out of left-over parts I had lying around the shop and installing it before the Celeste magnets.  Drawing the Celeste stop would activate the gang switch and electric current would be sent to both the in-tune and Celeste rank.  This arrangement eliminates the need for diodes, but requires me to build a switch.  Plus more moving parts and electrical contacts could mean higher maintenance in the future.  Building the switch is not difficult, just time consuming.

I solicited the opinions of the people on an organbuilder’s forum and everyone recommended the gang switch.  A number of people also offered to sell me a used switch they had on hand at a ‘very reasonable price’.  Thanks to Tim Bovard from Nichols & Simpson in Arkansas who promptly got a switch in the mail to me.

When it arrived I gave it a cleaning and testing and it was ready to install.  All I had to do was run a cable from the Salicional junction pins to the gang switch, then a cable from the switch to the Celeste junction pins.  I mounted it in the console (these work best in a vertical position, and that’s just the place I had for it) and ran a wire to the stop tab contacts.  The finished part is pictured below as installed in the bass-side of the console.  It took a full day to install, but was well worth it!  Much easier than building my own switch!

New HVAC System Installed

So, I realize this isn't directly related to the organ, but I had to get this home improvement project done before the organ is be installed.

My furnace was originally installed in 1956.  It was a massive thing with a water-cooled air conditioner, which was state-of-the-art at the time.  Although it still worked as well as when it was new, and the AC is very energy efficient (if you don’t mind the outrageous water bill), the furnace was only ~40% efficient.  Every time it kicked on I could picture all those dollar signs going up the flue.  As a result, I only kept the house about 50 degrees all winter and rarely (never) used the AC in the summer.

Although an organ can endure a lack of climate control, it is better to keep it a more consistent and moderate temperature.  An organ will go flat in a cold room and go sharp in a warm one.  The change is about 2 cents per degree.  One 'cent' is 1/100th of a semi-tone.  As long as the temperature in the room is uniform (no warm or cold spots), the organ will generally be in tune with itself, but A isn't going to be 440 Hz when it is very warm or very cold.  When the temperature returns to normal, the tuning generally goes back to normal as well.

A couple weeks ago, I had a new high efficiency furnace with a modern air conditioner installed.  I also had my air ducts cleaned.  Now with better equipment I am keeping the house about 60 degrees in winter and might keep it a little warmer after the organ is installed.  I still don’t plan to use the AC much in the summer.  Hopefully this home improvement project will create a more favorable environment for the organ, and save me some money on utilities (or at least keep me a little warmer in the winter!).