Organ Update - January 2024

This month’s progress can be summarized by lumber, platform and marimba. During our last large work day in December, we came up with a shopping list for the remaining poplar boards to have milled and plywood needed for the platform. Badger Hardwoods of Walworth came to the rescue again for the milled poplar boards (to match Wurlitzer’s spec) and Alpine Plywood of Milwaukee supplied the one inch-thick aspen sheets. As you may expect, these were heavy, as is everything pipe organ!

A full day was spent cutting up the plywood into jigsaw puzzle pieces to cover the platform up. Each panel was made to fit tightly so as to not allow any sound out. With the exception of two panels, all are removable to service the reservoirs underneath. An additional sheet of plywood was cut up for the second trap trunk and another sheet was used for two walkboards. These will now need to be sanded and spray shellacked.

Finally, it was decided that the marimba needed to be rebuilt the rest of the way, due to excessive wind leaks. Although some of the marimba was rebuilt before we got the organ, there were many pieces that remained on original leather, surrounded by an abundance of coal dust. The amount of pieces required to strike each marimba bar is simply amazing to me.