Hello everyone!  My name is Eric Bergstrom and I would like to introduce
myself.  I am a 38 year old electrical engineer/business owner from the
Chicago western suburb of Saint Charles.  I have been an amateur player
restorer for a good 10 years now, working on many components of various
model players, reproducers, and nickelodeons, just like many of you.
I recently discovered the Internet and was happy to see a site devoted
to discussions on the mechanical music subject.

My most current project is a 65/88 note Aeolian Pianola push up player,
which was a complete tear down and reconstruction project.  It is kind of
special, as it will be used in the first week of April during a 'Birthday
festival for the player piano" presented by the Chicago AMICA.  It will
feature Rex Lawson and Dennis Hall of London, who are internationally
known pianolists.  The festival will be a 5-day event presented in Aurora
and Sugar Grove, Illinois.  I will post full information as soon as I
find out who the main contact is.

In the process of this restoration, since so many parts needed replating,
I did the necessary research and successfully learned how to do my own
small scale Nickel plating!  This required a slight investment, but
allowed me to justify plating everything...screw heads, levers, brackets,
etc. I am totally satisfied with the results, but learned that the time
required to plate is 95% prep work.  The actual plating takes minutes,
but the prep work takes hours.  If anyone is interested in more details
I can discuss it some more.

I also am heavily involved with antique radio restoration, and have
started collecting them... that's a different subject.  One thing's for
certain, radios are MUCH simpler to get up and running.  Just as in
player actions, there were a zillion different ways to make a radio!
Both are fun to work with and extremely satisfying.  Being an electrical
engineer, the radios are usually pretty easy to fix.  Does anyone know
of a digest for antique radios?  If anyone is looking for someone to fix
their older radios in the western Chicago area, please get in contact
with me.

Enough already - thanks for listening to me.  I look forward to the
digest and hearing from such a diverse group of readers.  Sincerely,

Eric Bergstrom