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September 27 Wind motor assembledAfter ten days of work atop Mount Mansfield for Vermont Public Radio, I was able to get home this weekend and finish assembling the Chickering Ampico wind motor. The photos show various angles before and after restoration. The old rubber cloth was still tight enough to operate the motor but there was some gummy residue in the crankshaft bushings so those got replaced too. This substantially reduced drag on the motor. I was able to clean up the original stained finish adequately on the pneumatic boards. The graphited slide valve ports were quite worn and needed to be lapped. The slide valves got new bushing cloth and rubber cloth. All metal parts were carefully polished and the manifold block sealed and refinished. All internal passages of the valve blocks were sealed as well. This motor is now quite well sealed and refuses to be turned backward when the suction port is sealed off. Notice the uneven spacing between valve blocks and how this was corrected. 40 years from now, the only clue that this is not original factory work will be the presence of packing leather instead of cork on the manifold. I did not alter any aspect of the timing turnbuckles as these wires can easily break and are difficult to replace. The loops in the ends were not very skillfully formed originally but since the motor is working so well, I'll leave them alone.
I am now ready to assemble and tube the entire drawer. I will need some of the refinished wood pieces from John Zeiner & Sons once they are ready.
September 20 Governor and wind motor done100 more piano rolls have been scanned and uploaded to www.iammp.org . The Chickering Ampico pneumatic components are progressing nicely. I have finished the expression cutout, wind motor governor and most of the wind motor itself. About one more day will be needed to finish assembling the wind motor. That will enable the entire drawer to be assembled and tubed. Remaining are the two expression regulators, the primary chest, the stack and the pump. No news from Zeiner & Sons on the piano refinishing. By now, I would imagine some progress will have been made on the hand-rubbed finish and maybe the plate, pinblock and strings are close to happening.
The photos illustrate the method I used to locate the tiny holes in the cancel pneumatic for the return spring. I inserted short common pins into the existing holes in the wood with the sharp end sticking out. The pins pierce the hinge and pneumatic cloth as these are installed. Later, the pins are pulled out with pliers and the spring can easily be inserted.
The photos also show what was likely to be two reasons this piano stopped working. First, the tempo slide had a severe binding condition which, upon disassembling, was found to have been caused by a split in the wooden box. This split probably occurred at the time of manufacture. The bolt hole pattern in the cover did not match the pattern of pre-drilled pilot holes. 6 out of 7 screws matched, but the one odd location probably was not provided with a pilot hole, splitting the wood and pinching the tempo slide valve. The second fault would have occurred later. This being a warped and cracked tempo aperture plate. These were made of celluloid and all go bad eventually. The new one is brass. Some wood came out with the old plate and I had to mill out a shallow pocket and glue in a thin wooden shim to replace the missing material.
I'm in Stowe, Vermont for the next few weeks to install FM transmitters for Vermont Public Radio at the summit of Mount Mansfield. The wind motor will have to wait for my return. |
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