Aw schucks, it were nuttin'.  I'd just like to clarify a few things:

The patent leather secondary facings were sticky, I replaced with PPS
stock.  The outside facings I made from leather and glued to fiber
washers.  There was no force-fit collar for the outside valve, just a
sponge washer on each side (like that's going to hold).

The valve travel & pouch to valve clearance were excessive.  The only
hard part about these was removing the PVC-E sealer around the seats.
(E-mail me privately for force-fit collar set jig description.)

The tricky part was the primary valves. (To start with, too much travel;
and then finding patent leather glued to outside button, shiny side to
glue.) Fixed that.

Problem: Massive ciphering.  After many attempts to get a tight seal by
changing order of re-assembly, still sluggish and ciphering.  Finally, we
looked at the boards themselves.  The valve board was warped towards the
back.  The pouch board was warped towards the front.  Both had a
downwards bow and a twist.  Jointing and planing the face surfaces
increased vacuum, but still sluggish and ciphers.

The next observance was that the two center support blocks were forcing
the middle of the primary deck upwards.  Then, the two end vacuum
supply/support blocks had hair-line cracks which expanded with screws in
place.  Once all the stress was removed from the unit and end blocks
replaced, vacuum was restored.

Put it together, take it apart.  Put it together, take it apart.  Put it
together, take it apart.  Etc., etc.

The few remaining ciphers were traced to screws expanding hairline cracks
between channels, which were not visible (without magnifying glass) and
didn't leak on testing without screws installed.  All channels had been
given 2 coats of shellac, so these really eluded us.  (Sluggishness
disappeared once pouches were sealed).

Put it together, take it apart.  Put it together, take it apart.  Put it
together, take it apart.  Etc., etc.

All pouches had been previously installed with PVC-E (a real joy to
remove),  there was debris in the wells, prompting their replacement.
This was when I noticed uneven depth, most of them were too deep; some
not deep enough.  Planing the surfaces and a Forstner bit got these
uniform.

The sluggish tracking device needed a bleed on each of the upside-down
pouches (cancel valves).

Replacing the menagerie of screws with uniformity makes for a nicer
presentation.

Again I would like to plug the OverdriverPro (4 to 1 gear ratio) ratchet
screwdriver.  It makes quick work of "Put it together, take it apart."
Available from McFeeley's  #SK-2000 ($30.00)      800-443-7937

Jon Page¶
Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. (jpage@capecod.net)