Winter is finally arriving here in the Northeast, and with it time
to descend into the basement and pick up projects abandoned when
warm sunny days created a distraction.  The project in question is
a vacuum-operated 58-note Style 17 Aeolian Grand player organ.
(Unfortunately, it is completely different in almost every way from
the machine that Richard Vance wrote his great article about.)

Today's question is related to valve travel.  How big should it be?
Replacing the valve leather with material that seems pretty close
(the old stuff is sufficiently decrepit that accurate measurement
isn't possible) I'm getting travel in the range of 0.05 to 0.07 inch.

I know I need to make them even, but at what value?  This seems close
to twice what many player pianos would use, but this mechanism is
pretty different from that of player pianos.  Advice from those who
have traveled this road would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Roger Wiegand
Wayland, Massachusetts, USA