Hi all,  My name is Tony Caught.  I live in Darwin, Australia, and am
a good piano tuner who over the years has dabbled in French polishing,
rebuilding and the reconditioning of pianolas.  I am 63 years old and
have been doing the above for some thirty five years.

Since moving to Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory with a
population of less than 100,000, I have spent most of my time tuning
and repairing pianos.  Now for the problem.

I took on a pianola reconditioning job and have been caught out.
Thinking it was a clean skin, I accepted the job but, on getting it
back to my shop, I found that the pneumatics had been reglued with a
white glue.  The upper stack rails are porous (it was in a very dry,
hot tin shed for about four years; found this out later) and glue had
blocked half the bleeder holes, etc.  Tried to fix it, but to no avail.

In Darwin I have no hope of finding another stack, and as my customer
is now in America (and has a free baggage allowance), they have asked
me to try and locate an upper stack that is repairable for this beast
over there and they will bring it back.

You're not going to like what make it is, but I can only try:  it is
a Gulbransen 3-tier with pouches in the pneumatics upper stack.  It is
from a Gulbransen-Dickenson pianola Ser. No. 134284

I know, I should never have taken it on, but the can come up nice.
Help !

Regards

Tony Caught