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MMD > Archives > May 1998 > 1998.05.05 > 03Prev  Next


Rebuilding Aeolian Celestina
By John Wolff

In MMD 980424 Paul DeWitt wrote about rebuilding Celestina pneumatics:

> In brief, I rebuilt the pneumatics with zephyr skin ... would be
> happy to go into great detail, particularly about how to attach
> flexible material to two small Popsicle sticks that aren't even
> attached at one end with a hinge!

For comparison, the Celestina I have just finished _did_ have hinges in
the pallet pneumatics.  They were made from a tiny strip of leather,
not much more than 1/16" square in cross-section and half an inch long,
glued _between_ the boards.  This gave side clearance for the covering,
which was leather, maybe kidskin, about .006" to .008" thick.  My
Celestina is branded "Mechanical Orguinette Company" and has a serial
number in the 8000s - maybe things were "improved" by the time they
became Aeolian.

I made a trial pneumatic with zephyr skin, but didn't have enough on
hand to do the full set, and was a bit put off by the discussion of the
unstickability of recent supplies.  In the end I used a fine bovine
leather, which I had split down to around .008".  So far, they are
working fine.

John Wolff
Melbourne, Australia.


Key Words in Subject:  Aeolian, Celestina, Rebuilding

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