Mr Pudding

Things have arrived!

I am now in possession of many new things (for various values of ‘new’).

The piston rails have been drilled (see photo; unfortunately I didn’t take a photograph of the pre-drilled rails, but trust me, they didn’t have as many holes in them).

I have enough shiny! new! KA pistons to fill the aforementioned holes. £145 worth of pistons, to be exact.  Actually surprisingly cheap but Mr Norwich Organs had some unused ones in stock.  I’m still thinking about which ones to engrave.

I have some contact assemblies to replace the few damaged ones (and have been given instruction in how to do it).

I have some pedal felt for when I eventually get round to the pedals.

I bought some glue, desoldering braid, and a new pair of snips, since mine have lost their snip.  That was another £19.

The next step is to replace the damaged contact assemblies, which I hope to do on Saturday if the braid arrives.  I will also be ordering my first bit of MIDI kit some time in November.  This must be what progress feels like.

Well I’m back from my holiday, refreshed and poor.  Nevertheless, there will be progress made this month.  At some point in the next couple of weeks I will be collecting the newly-bored piston rails, at which point I can begin to reassemble the keyboards and start testing the contacts (I’ve done a rough test and everything seems fine, but best not to leave anything to chance).  In November, funds permitting, I will be purchasing the first piece of MIDI hardware, which will mean that I will finally be able to get some sound out of the console – I want to thoroughly test the keyboards and pistons before I assemble them into a single block and screw them down.  I also need to get the pistons engraved – still debating on whether to leave the setting pistons blank and only engrave the couplers (as is traditional) or to engrave them all.  Hmm.

In the meantime, and since this is supposed to be a pictoral record (and I haven’t posted any pictures recently), here are a couple of consoles I am thinking of using for inspiration.  The first is the Harrah Symphonic Organ from Forrest Burdette UMC in Hurricane, West Virginia.  The second is the organ of the Boardwalk Hall Auditorium in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  I’m not sure that any other furniture in the lounge is really necessary…

A perfect storm of work (not just mine), illness (not just mine), holidays (not just mine) has led to a regrettable delay in the project.  However, things are once again on the move: the pistons have arrived, and the piston rails will be drilled next week.

I’m off on holiday for the next week-and-a-bit, but I hope that October will see the project return to business as usual.  I am currently unable to entertain, on account of bits of organ console spread all over the house, and it is beginning to bore me.  I yearn to start assembling the keyboard stack and starting to test it.

For’ard!

Grr.

The last six weeks have been a blur.  Mia has been in for major surgery, from which she has now fully recovered.  More surgery in July, probably, when her skin is elastic enough.  Poor thing.

Work continues to age me prematurely.  It started with a hard paper round, and has gotten progressively worse since then.  I am withered before my time.

But I now have tangible evidence of progress!  I have received the repaired oak frames for the Choir and Great organ, with the broken screw removed and the hole plugged, and two new fixings bored.  The oak, being at least 20 years old, is as hard as iron, and the job took longer than Mr Norwich Organs expected.  None of this work is visible once the console is assembled, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, the idea of leaving the damage in place was something which the original builder was simply not prepared to countenance.

Next month, which is frighteningly close to becoming this month, I should receive both the re-bored piston rails and sufficient pistons to fill them.  I then need to be a-thinking about what to do next.  My first thought is to buy the MIDI controller so that I can interface with a computer and test the keyboards and pistons before fixing them to the console, however I still have to re-cut the knee-board and rebuild the expression shoe box to take three expression shoes rather than the current two.  And I have not even begun to work on the pedalboard.  This is a point I must ponder most pensively, preparatory to parting with pennies.

I’m probably beyond help.

Still here.  Meeting myself coming back at the moment, but hopefully will have time (and money!) to spend on more bits in March.

The Great Saga of the Pistons goes on.  Exploring another option, about which more later if it amounts to anything.

I picked up a three-manual stack from Mr Norwich Organs today. They are Norwich Organs originals, about 20 years old, and in lovely solid oak frames. They are in good condition, and need nothing more than a good clean to bring them back into use. Although the keys are plastic, they are well-made and have a pleasing action – and at £100 a pop, I think have got myself a bargain. They are currently in bits all over the conservatory, so I’ll post a photo of them when they are properly assembled. In the meantime, here is a photo of the contacts mid-clean. The glass brush scrapes off the tarnish in no time, as you can see (clean contacts on left of image, tarnished contacts on right). You can also see the nasty glass fibres that break of from the brush during use. I cleaned the keyboards over newspaper, and also gave them a good brushing over with a very powerful vacuum cleaner to remove the fibres. Having tiny pieces of glass stuck in your fingers is not anyone’s idea of fun. Or at least, if it is someone’s idea of fun then I’d rather not know about it.

In other news, the new dog is settling in well so far.  Early days, though.