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Hi All,  I am a piano tech but not a player tech.  I do tune
players and have had success with simple player repairs but I have
never rebuilt or attempted to rebuild any.

A customer absolutely insisted I look at her father's player piano
as he is trying to sell it and time is short.  It ran the roll but it
played nothing.  I found a large pneumatic on what I believe is an
expression box (?) in the lower left next to the bellows, held it
closed to eliminate the leak and it played fine.  The cloth had come
loose from the pneumatic and it was impossible to repair in the piano
as another pneumatic was right next to it and I would not be able to
get glue in there.  I felt I should use hide glue, anyway, so I took
the whole unit out.

In the shop I took the box apart so I could remove the screws holding
the pneumatic in place, and all the joints were covered in a reddish-
brown grease, I'm assuming a silicone grease?  All of the wood was
"wet" and somewhat spongy, again I assume from the grease soaking into
the wood pores?  The player was rebuilt 20 years ago by a local player
tech.

So, is this silicone grease and is it appropriate?


Thanks!
Mike McCoy
Langhorne, Pennsylvania