-- forwarded message, please reply to sender and MMD --

[ I asked Mr. Evans about the condition of his Pistonola action. ]

According to Orde-Hume, who apparently discovered on old fellow who
worked for Boyd's, they weren't very reliable even from new!  Rust, no.
Clogged up?  More than likely.  With such tiny clearances and not much
in the way of filtration, it seems probable.

Have found no evidence of pistons disintegrating.  The graphite ones
that I have looked at seem to be in excellent shape.  There does appear
to be evidence that grit jams them in their cylinders from time to
time.  Maybe a set of dust filters on the tracker bar would be a good
modification?

As I said, I have seen no sign of self-destructing pot metal.  The
castings seem to be of good quality aluminium alloy.  It was not
uncommon at the time -- look at the violin magnet cover and other parts
of the Mills Violano.  Only the structural parts of that machine seem
to be of pot metal!

Keep in touch!

David Evans
Hampshire, England

 [ Mr. Evans says that the top of the line Boyd Pistonola piano was
 [ called "Terpreter", Models 1, 2 and 3.  A schematic drawing of the
 [ action is now in the web page at the MMD Pictures site:
 [ http://mmd.foxtail.com/Pictures -- Robbie