Organ Update - April 2024

This month, wiring on the rear toy counter was completed. We can now make the organ sound like a marching band drum section! The Diaphone racking was assembled, which was made from scratch based on engineering diagrams in the Wurlitzer book and measurements taken / verified from other organs. This included the quarter inch steel rods that the pipes hook onto. With that done, the diaphone chest was screwed down, racking installed and pipes planted! The last Bourdon (bottom of the flute) chest went in, along with the flute, diaphone, salicional and VDO/Celeste offset chests. All were wired and a final cable was run for the two treble offsets. With that, the relay wiring is completed! All documentation has been updated, printed out and placed in a binder for reference. The Uniflex relay got a new “Pipes” user added with all pin addresses programmed in, versus calling for Hauptwerk digital ranks. As soon as pipes are planted on chests, this user can be loaded to actually play them.

The bottom six notes of the VDO / Celeste and Salicional ranks have been packed in a crate for Andy Meyer to miter them to fit. As you can see by the picture of the strings, we simply ran out of ceiling height.

Before the string chests went in, two reservoirs were removed from their trunks so that the proper holes could be made. This proved to be most difficult as the lids were fastened down with cleats, rather than screwed down from above. A couple of hours elapsed on the floor dealing with that challenge. Once removed, flanges and stub pipes were installed so that future connections to chests would be easier given that the VDO offset is conveniently located in front of the reservoir like a wall! While putting PVC pipe together, the Post Horn chest was winded.

Finally, the walk board framing between manual chests was installed. A dowel jig was used, along with my newly acquired reproduction fish plates to strengthen the supports.

With all of that done, a hopefully “final” order of pvc flanges were ordered to make the rest of the connections. A curtain reservoir was also ordered to run the bottles at 4” of wind pressure.