I know this is off the normal subject matter, bear with me this once.
I guess this has happened to all of us before -- while searching for
one thing you find another, in this case another project (just what
I needed).

While looking for suitable pipes for my orchestrion build up, I found a
10-rank pipe organ. It has 2 ventil style chests, one with 5 ranks, the
second with 4.  It also has enough pipes to add one more: 16' Bourdons,
one of them 9' tall.

So my workshop off the garage now houses lots of pipes and a console.
It came with two console cases: one quartered oak, with a roll top
closure, the other a homemade case.  My wife thinks I'm nuts, but she
knew that before she married me!

Now for the questions:

1.  The primary chest got caught in the one thunder storm Akron Ohio
had this summer. Valves, pouches, and caskets, now look like our dogs
rawhide chew toys. I have contacted Richard Schneider a member of MMD,
and organ builder who will help with supplies.  But I'd like to talk to
hobbyist that have undertaken this type of work before.

2.  As I don't play, I'd like to have input on MIDI systems to turn it
into a player, or a roll-playing mechanism maybe?  I'm still setting
up, so I'll quit writing and get to work.

3.  My last problem is I'll still need pipes, as I don't want to steal
them from my new organ.  As I said my wife knows I'm nuts, or is that
a Filbert?!  Thankfully she's also very understanding of this Filbert!

Dave Brown