Player Piano Revival Episode 10: Reanimating the Air Motor
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ม.ค. 2023
- #rpm #glue #progress
This 105-year-old player piano is in dire need of an overhaul if it's ever going to be anything more than just a shelving unit.
I often feel like I'm operating inside a vacuum in my little piano shop. It's time to change that.
If you'd like to support my work, please consider subscribing.
Music: 351 Motor March, Connorized 7335 Railroad Man, QRS Word Roll 10-429 Knock Three Times, QRS 4479 How Long - How Long Blues played on a restored 1917 Autopiano upright player piano. - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Thanks so much for watching! If you'd like to support my work, please consider clicking the "like" and "subscribe" buttons. This encourages the TH-cam droids to share my work with others.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to comment below. If you want - no pressure!
Thanks, Nate. I'm glad you didn't get "cranky" with the crankshaft! You are a gifted rebuilder and video maker. Really appreciate what you're doing to encourage me in my hobbyist rebuilding project.
Hi Greg, the shenanigans help me cope with frustrations. I'm glad I can provide some inspiration. Happy Gluing!
My grandparents had one of these in their basement, probably the same manufacturer as this was all remarkably familiar, especially the motor itself and the control levers. Thank you for showing this restoration!
This Autopiano player is the same type my grandparents had, too!
Fascinating !
Air motors are fascinating. Thanks for the video.
Yes, they're very clever! Thanks for watching.
Nate's smoke alarm scared my dog but I'm sticking with it! This is a fun binge on a Sunday night.
I'm glad you're enjoying it!
A little secret youngling, most, if not all glues, including epoxies, will come unglued with heat. Instead of using the table saw to cut the glued items apart just put the items in the shop oven. Add a cup of water in the oven and you get just a little steam. The wet heat will work even faster. Experiment; use the strongest glue you know, glue two scrap pieces of wood together,. When cured, put the glued item in the oven with cup of water and see how the glued pieces come apart. I think you will not be using the dangerous table saw with the blade cranked all the way out anymore. Safety youngling safety 1st. If you just need a spot unglued, get an old iron and apply to spot. There is no glue that can resist heat, they all come apart with a heat wrench.
Lovin' the sight gags man, you really make player restoration entertaining.
Thank you! The humor helps me through such tedious work.
When I used to go to a Farrell's restaurant, they had a player piano in which you could actually see what was going on inside through the glass panes. I saw how the air motor oscillated twice every second during play and three times during rewind. I have never seen it revving to 1200 rpm.
They are kind of mesmerizing to watch!
Always hugely enjoyable, thank you so much!
Thanks Mark!
Thank you, I needed cheering up.
You're welcome!
When you place the felts, the way I have seen it done (& the way I have done it) is to cut a long strip of the felt for the proper circumference. On end of the strip, cut a point. Pull this point through a bearing. It will naturally roll up. Pull it almost all the way through. Apply glue to the felt outside. Pull a little more until the glue is inside the bearing. Slice felt off with razor blade. Pull the point end through the next bearing.... Repeat for each bearing. Each time, the felt gets a little shorter.
This motor is unusual in that they have separate reduced-throw crank for each valve. on the ones that I have seen, the valve is driven from the same crank as the pneumatic. The ones I have worked on have 6 pneumatics, set in 3 pairs & 3 double-ended valves with 3 holes each.
Regarding the glue, after you cut away the cloth & open the pneumatics, apply hot iron to the interior of the wood. You will need more heat than usual, but the glue will eventually debond.
Hi Brian, yes that is certainly another way to accomplish it! Thanks!
@@nateoutsidethevacuum It's the ONLY practical way when you are rebuilding a piano action with 88 x many bearings!
@@bpark10001 felt "tubes" are the only possible way to do it on such tiny action flanges.
Delightful!
Hi Dave, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Great video Nate! I enjoyed watching it. The one thing I really hate is when people use the wrong glues and materials when it comes to rebuilding. I had to deal with a wind-chest that was horribly sealed with tacky glue, and pumps that were epoxied together. I am looking forward to more videos!
I'm glad you enjoyed it. I agree with you, the repairs that are the least fun seem to always involve removing "the wrong glue".
Sunny-side up!
yay it worked!
To get the crank really moving I would say a nice electric drill on the free end👌
Great video 2x👍 the carbon black paint joke was just 🤣🤣
Well, that would be one way to disassemble things. Ouch!
Glad you liked the video, thanks for watching.
@@nateoutsidethevacuum rapid disassembly is the correct term, I think. 🤣
I tried a similar experiment, hooking a 3-Bellows Aeolian motor to a vacuum cleaner, not for a speed test but to test the power of the motor itself, and was very surprised at the power it produced!
Yes, a torque test would be interesting!
Nate, found out to test if keys are ivory take a small pin or paper clip and get it pretty hot then touch a part of the key that won't show and if it melts its synthetic if not it ivory. The synthetics can look so much like ivory that sometimes its hard to tell.
Yes the heat test works. I've never done it as I'd be afraid of burning the piano down.
Waiting to see how the keys are actuated. Perhaps something to do with all the crispy rubber tubes that were destroyed in the beginning?
We will get to that soon. The shorts clip about the toasted tubing was actually on another project.
The tubes are the first clue. I’m hoping the rest of the player action (i.e. the most important parts) will be covered in part 12 and beyond.
@@andrewbarrett1537 yes. I'm getting there, slow and steady.
I have a 1906 heppe with a 6 bellow but only 3 value air motor. Has anyone ever seen that? I am lost on finding something similar to compare it to.
That's some AMAZING Talent! although I do have 1 question
How did you set the timing on the air motor to make it run smooth?
Thank you! That process is best described in the book Rebuilding the Player Piano by Art Reblitz. It's a must read if you're working on one of these things!
@@nateoutsidethevacuum Thanks! I am tinkering around with my own player piano, I think I'll pick up that book eventually.
You know, I've always wondered how fast an air motor can go, but I've just found a simplex piano player that has a spring wound gear motor..............
No I'm not gonna destroy it lol.
I've never seen a Simplex like that. Very neat!
Hi Nate, love the project and videos so far. Anyway you could post in the description the roll titles/info you used in the background music of your episodes? I recognize a version of "Railroad Man" that I don't know who plays. Thanks! Can't wait for your next video!
Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying this. All roll titles/brands are listed at the bottom of every video description. The rolls are from my personal collection and are recorded here.
I haven't been listing p/b details and probably should. Sorry about that. This version of Railroad Man was played by Burt Reeves.
@@nateoutsidethevacuum Thanks, didn't scroll down enough, guess I need more coffee this morning! Those are some great rolls and it totally adds to the videos.
@@AAErikCO Thank you! It's been a fun way of sharing my collection.
I have seen the corners of the pneumatic corner creases strengthened with an extra piece of very thin leather to inhibit wear. Do recommend this?
I think that's a good idea on large bellows like exhausters and reservoirs, but I don't do that on small pneumatics like these. I want this motor to be as limber as possible.
What are the keys on your player piano made of? Just curious as most I've seen are some sort of early plastic or clay. Mine are two-piece ivory and I'm not sure how rare that is. It's also from 1888 so that could explain some of it.
Your two-piece ivory keys are how most antique piano keysticks were covered.
th-cam.com/video/bn4z5gnFn0c/w-d-xo.html
I highly doubt you have a pneumatic player piano built in 1888. If that date is cast in the plate somewhere, that would represent either the year of an important patent they held, or else the year of the founding of the company. The first pneumatic player piano / piano player marketed in the USA was the Wilcox & White Angelus, introduced in 1895. The Aeolian Pianola closely followed in 1897 and was a runaway success. Relatively few built in home player pianos were built in the USA from 1895-1910; I dare say probably around 100,000 or thereabouts but I don’t have exact figures. This era mostly was the era of external push up piano players like the Angelus, Pianola, Cecilian, Simplex, Apollo, Chase & Baker and many other extremely rare ones besides the more popular makes mentioned. Most push ups and built in player pianos in this period used a 58-, 65-, or 66-note roll. Very few used 88-note rolls and all built before about 1908 were Apollo’s and used only the wide Melville Clark Apollo roll format that was discontinued by about 1910 in favor of the now standard 88-note format of narrower hole spacing (9 holes per inch) in order to use the paper width of the old Aeolian 65-note format. Hope this helps.
The greatest era of production of home built in player and reproducing pianos in the USA was 1910-1930, but most especially the 15 year period from 1912-1927. Nearly all golden era pre depression player and reproducing pianos built in the USA were built by this time, although a few companies soldiered on through the Depression up until about 1941 building fewer and fewer each year. The precipitous production drop-off around 1927 was due to the advent of amplified phonographs for the home (as well as electrically-recorded records which had been introduced in 1925, of startlingly better fidelity than the old acoustic recording process), and also the advent of broadcast radio.
Although some attempts were made at bringing back player pianos in the 50s, the first commercially viable revival era ones hit the market in 1960 and were largely built through about 1985 (although a few companies soldiered on until the recession in 2008 or so, with maybe only one firm still in business today).
While 100,000 player pianos may sound like quite a lot (and it is), during the 1895-1910 period, built in player pianos, even coin pianos, accounted for probably only 1/3 or less of piano production, which was at an all-time high in the USA during this period. By 1923 (the peak year of the player piano market), however, this was reversed and TWO THIRDS of all new pianos built in the USA at that time were some kind of player. All told it is estimated that some 2 million player pianos of all makes and types combined, were built in the USA from 1895-1941. This includes foot pumped and/or electric home player, expression and reproducing pianos; commercial coin op pianos, Orchestrions and photoplayers for public venues, and automated pianos incorporated in some larger instruments such as pipe organs.
One other possibility is that your piano was actually built in 1888 and had the player action RETROFITTED approx 20 years later, as was done with hundreds of Victorian era uprights.
To find any possible build date of the piano, it might have the date written somewhere else, such as lightly in pencil on the SIDE of the first key on the keyboard, as many makers did; AND/OR *might* be cast into the piano plate as a hyphenated CODE near the bottom of the plate (under the keyboard and behind the foot pumps), representing the date the plate was cast in the foundry, not the date the assembled piano left the factory.
May I ask What kind of cloth do you use ?
Hi Paul, I use the "thin motor" cloth from DC Ramey.
dcramey.com/Other%20Items.html
@@nateoutsidethevacuum is that the nylon coated with polyurethane? I used the lightweight on my stack pneumatics
@Paul James I'm not sure of it's exact material make up, but that sounds right.
And it only took 17 minutes! 😂
Oh how I wish! I edit them to show how quickly I WISH the work would take.
after fussing about the previous rebuilder using a synthetic (rather than hot hide glue)you use a synthetic to glue the rubbercloth?!?!? tsk tsk. ;-)
I see small bellows like these as disposable items. Difficult-to-manufacture trunks and decks, no so much.
I questioned that as well, but admittedly am guilty of the same thing. Early in my rebuilding, I used PVC-E glue for striker and motor pneumatics. I now try to use hide glue on everything. Even though synthetic glues are not the best for player rebuilding, PVC-E glue is nowhere near as bad as white or carpenters glue!!!
@Joe Yahoo I wouldn't call yourself guilty. At least, not if you're using the synthetic cloth like I used. The synthetic cloth requires synthetic adhesive. Sure, I could use traditional cloth, but I feel the rubber stuff we can get nowadays isn't as airtight as this synthetic cloth that's currently available.
Richard, I should also point out I'm using synthetic cloth purchased from the DC Ramey website. It's really airtight stuff!
17:10 sounds like a diesel engine!
Yes! That was the main reason that clip made the cut. It's really an impressive sound in person.
Yeah I bet!