Thomas Hendsen,

    I saw your plea for help and thought maybe I could lend a hand. I
tried your address and the letter was returned, so I'll just post it
here. I am here on the internet, so you have a friend close by if you
need one, not to mention lots of us here at AMD.

    Your problem with the piano is the same as the rest of us. We get
old and then we don't work very well. There is no way to adjust your
way out of this one. The main problem, you will find, after you have
replaced all the covers and diddled around with the rest of it, will be
the valves, so you might as well plan on a full rebuild.

    The reason is this: When the pouches push the valves up, they tend
to stretch the leather valve disks which are being sucked down on one
face while glued solidly to the valve poppet on the other side. As long
as the vacuum cannot build up very much in an old player, not much
damage can be done. But when everything else becomes tight again, those
old dry-rotted leathers in the valves become very leaky after awhile,
as a result of being stretched edgewise-- fluffed like a pillow.

    Do you know how large a #70 drill bit is? About the diameter of a
sewing needle. If each valve leaked only that much overall, the total
effect would be a 1/4" drill hole right through your player. So you
see, all it would take would be two or three "leakier than normal"
rotted valves to completely disable the player (representing a sizeable
portion of a 'half inch dia. hole) after you had gone to the trouble of
recovering and patching bellows. Don't do it that way. I have never
seen a player work that was done that way. It has never happened, and
it never will. Rubber stuff on bellows is more trouble than it's worth,
too. If it won't pump up hard and tight when no notes are playing, then
sealing bellows will do no good at all.

    The Player Piano Co in Wichita, KS 67202 has a catalog. You can
order also by phone. 316-263-3241. They sell supplies. I don't suggest
buying their valve leather. You can get just as good where you are. The
pouches in an old themodist may be just fine. I always replace, but I
realize you are on a budget. The glue you use should be their hot hide
glue. Never NEVER use anything else, and you will be a happy camper.
Animal hide glue is perfectly airtight when dry. Other forms of glue
are not, neither are they repairable. I suggest you get a copy of Art
Reblitz' book on Rebuilding the Player Piano, also. Good luck.

Craig Brougher

(my address may be changing soon. So watch for it in the Automatic
Music Forum.