Larry Lobel wrote in MMD 97.02.11:

> I'm restoring my third player piano, a Modello made by Baldwin.

For some reason this seems to me the most common action I run to.  I've
been rebuilding three to six a year. I have two in the shop presently.  I
call these the Crunchy Player-action.  The wood they used they used is
very light weight poplar of low quality.  When I get these actions they
are always really dried out, crumbly and very filthy.

> I found a gasket instead of a wood-to-wood mating ...

This is just regular bellows cloth.  What I do is notch the position of
the pneumatics with an X-acto knife on the valve plates.  Number or letter
the plates before you take them off.  Also keep the valves in order.  It
is very important to get the pneumatics back *right* into the original
position.

You need to sand off the cloth gasketing on both sides.  Also the leather
gasketing on top of the valve wells needs to be removed and replaced.
When you take that leather strip off you'll see the screws that hold the
pouch and valve boards together.  You'll need to separate these.
Determine if you need to replace the pouches.

Next you need to take a punch or the right size of dowel and knock out
the bottom seat valve grommets.  Clean the old shellac out of the bottom
of the valve well and re-install the grommets with a good resilient glue.
When gluing on the bellows cloth strips, put a fair amount of hide or
carpenters glue on both surfaces.  It is important that those strips get
thoroughly glued down.  As soon as the strip is down, go over it with an
iron at mild heat setting; too hot and you will damage the pouches.  Turn
the deck over, let it dry, then do the other side.

Cut the holes for the pneumatics.  You're ready to glue the pnumatics on
to the decks.  Lightly fasten the valve plates with the notches.  Do NOT
put the valves in as glue will most likely drip through.   Next, the
leather gasketing on the valve board.  I use a thin-to-medium unbuffed
kid skin.  Cut the skin in strips.  Use Franklin hide glue in the back
side of the leather.  Glue it down to the board and let it sit overnight.
The holes will cut out easily with an X-acto knife.

Valves:  The bottom face of pouch leather is usually in good shape and
[needs only a] light treatment with silicone solution (not neatsfoot).
Always replace the top seat with unbuff calfskin.  (Stay away from any
of the sponge rubber or plastic valve facings that PPCo sells; they're
_bad news_.)  Once the plates are on the valve travel should be about
.045 inch.  Hope this is of some help.

Brian Thornton, Short Mtn. Music Works, 109 N. Cannon St.,¶
Woodbury TN 37190 ; 615-563-5814¶
http://www.mindspring.com/~goatboy/smmw.htm