Hi All,  In my experiences with Ragtime's pneumatics the main thing
that fails there are the hinges and debris getting caught inside.
I haven't had that much of a problem with the internal valves going
bad.

Normally I remove the covering around the pneumatic and carefully blow
out any debris, paying attention to the bleed hole.  Their pouches are
pressed into a channel and sometimes pull out.  Be aware of this when
blowing these with an air gun.  If so, take a little plastic glue or
Super Glue and re-secure it back in position.  This task isn't that
easy because they're in a awkward position.

When recovering the pneumatic make sure you double wrap the outside
of the hinge.  Because of the way these have been molded you can't
install an inner hinge.  What I do is lightly rough up the plastic
on the outside of the hinge and with Super Glue (being that they are
plastic) I cover the end of the pneumatic with cloth to make a strong
hinge.  Then I cover the pneumatic with pneumatic cloth, with plastic
glue covering bottom hinge again.  Hide glue will not work, obviously.

I run into these machines all the time.  Some units are built very
well and are pleasing to the eye, but unfortunately the mechanics are
not as equally well thought through.  I get orders _all_ the time for
replacing instruments in Ragtime's units with my original handcrafted
parts.  And now I can even replace the MIDI operated instruments.
Some claim even if they repair the pneumatics the instruments are of
poor quality (for what I'm told).

So there you have it.  I'm not trying to advertise but if you want
my suggestion, I would repair the pneumatics that operate the keys
first and if you need any parts take them from the instruments and then
order the instruments that you want from Roberts Musical Restorations.
If the case is nice then you're 90% complete and you can custom build
your own nickelodeon.  Not to mention if you have any problems with the
instruments in the future they would be under my warrantee and would be
repaired or replaced free of charge and wouldn't cost you an arm and
leg to replace or repair that Ragtime would charge you.  Just a note:
Ragtime just almost doubled some of their replacement part costs.  All
of my instruments are interchangeable with Ragtime's.

If anyone has any further questions regarding Ragtime's units feel free
to email me.  Hope this helps.

Musically,
Robert Loeffler - Roberts Musical Restorations
Deland, Florida
www.robertsmusicalrestorations.com