Streets of Geneva

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Now here's a chap who takes his cat with him

when he goes out Organ Grinding.

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His name is Josef and his cat is called Toulouse.

I can't imagine either of mine putting up with this!

They leave the house when I start playing.

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Going "spooning"?

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Now, if anyone fancies taking up the autoharp,

and was worried about a broken finger nail,

here is an alternative!

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There you go!

After dinner, when you've just polished off

that big helping of apple pie and cream,

lick the spoon.......

.......and tap out a toon!

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Looking inside a Barrel Organ.

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Whilst browsing the other day,

I came on this video of a movement out of a 'Flute Clock'.

It is a very good example of the workings of barrel organs.

At the very bottom, you can see the cranked bellows

pumping air up into the 'reservoir' sitting on top of it.

From here the air will be admitted to the correct pipe,

at the correct time,

by a valve being lifted open,

when a 'pin' or 'bridge' on the rotating barrel

passes under it.

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Normally only one tune is played on one revolution of the barrel.

However, in this case the barrel is 'pinned' on a spiral

to produce a longer playing time.

Just thought you might like to see how they work.

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Work continues on new Piccolo pipes.

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"Finished those piccolo pipes?" asked Dennis.

No, not quite, but I'm getting on 'Champion'.

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Now after cutting out all the blocks at the correct angles,

the drilling holes in each block,

(top block for the brass pipe and bottom block for the feed),

I had to chisel out the wind-way from the feed hole to the mouth.

(above)

Next, I was interested to see how much space I had,

from the back of these new pipes,

to the fronts of the pipes behind.

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I laid a new pipe block on its side with the feed hole on the bottom,

in line with the holes in the pipe mounts.

I had a good 3/8" gap showing, and I'm hoping the new pipes

will not affect the playing of the row behind.

Next, time to cut and mount the brass pipes.

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I reamed the holes in the top blocks,

to give a really good tight fit.

Brass tube cut to length with a VERY fine bladed piercing saw.

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The brass tube wall was only .014" thick (thin?)

Here they are all laid out ready for assembly (glue).

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I tried 'voicing' all of them in turn and had several at the high end,

that refused to 'speak'.

The 1/16" ply seemed a bit thick,

and the stream of air was blowing too high

over the top of the upper lip.

I changed the ply for 1/32" beech veneer

and that worked well on these high notes.

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I cut 13 pieces of veneer so I may use it on all the pipes.

I'll see how they sound before deciding.

Now comes the most difficult part.

Gluing them all up.

Oh, yes.

The wooden spoons (nice beech dowel handles)

are cut into short pieces, hole bored in the centre,

and a taper turned to fit the pipe mounts.

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An Autoharp for Foody

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This is a special bit for Foody.

She has an autoharp which she has had restored,

and I'm waiting to hear how she is getting on

with learning to play?

This fellow has loads of uploaded videos.

All beautiful.

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Just lovely.

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Making a start on the Piccolo pipes.

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The organ has space for four ranks of pipes.

I never got round to building all four,

and have made do with three.

It will, and does play perfectly well with only one rank.

So my fourth choice was for 13 piccolo pipes,

which required to be made from nice hardwood.

Many thanks to Dennis,

for providing me with some excellent beech blocks.

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Milling the beech down to thickness.

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There were seven different thicknesses required

for the corresponding pipes.

As you can see from above,

there are some quite complicated angles to cut.

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I made a couple of 'cradles' to hold the blocks

at the correct angle for cutting.

It also ensured that all thirteen were all the same.

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From the above drawing you can see that quite a large hole

had to be drilled end-on to take the brass pipe.

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I did the drilling in the lathe as above.

I have a speed controller here and could

slow it down for these large drills.

The largest was 9/16".

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The 9/16" tube fits a treat.

The bottom blocks were then cleaned up in the mill,

and the bases cut parallel to the tops.

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Looking more like the finished thing now.

I left those bits on the bottom left of each base,

and will cut them off after the whole thing is glued up.

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This is where the air comes into the pipe at the base.

All marked up ready for more drilling.

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This time, all the holes for the wind pipes

were the same diameter.

Oh yes, the wooden spoons?

I'll tell you about those next time.

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Pass the Tea and Sympathy.

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In 1976 I bought this LP by Janis Ian and still have it today.

Some of the songs like this one, I have always enjoyed.

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Enjoy.

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A chance to hear some Brass Flute pipes.

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Orgelbau Stüber Berlin 26er Violinopan

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"Made in England"

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Over here a did a post which included a 'heap' of old

musical instruments awaiting repair.

In there, was this Piccolo.

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I bought it quite cheap in the local antique shop

many years ago.

It is an Eb piccolo as used in flute bands.

The technical notes say it is a :-

"Six key Conical flute in black wood with a silver head"

Now, I have always wanted a row of flute pipes for the organ.

You can see a lovely rank here on this Niemuth & Stuber

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Thirteen in a row. Just what I need.

The only snag is that I shall have to make my own!

I shall not actually be building flute pipes,

but a rank half the size to play an octave higher.

These are known a "Piccolo" pipes.

I sent off for the brass tubes some while back and

because I wanted Imperial sizes,

9/16", 17/32" and so on,

they had to come from our friends in America.

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Here they are!

Shipped hundreds of miles, just because we,

in England,

don't make things anymore.

Sad, isn't it.

So, out to the workshop as soon as it warms up a bit.

At least the new pipes will be:-

"Made in England"

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A Peep Inside.

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I just noticed that it is some weeks since anything appeared here, and it has been a long time since I put up news on the organ-grinding scene.

I have never been very keen on standing around in the cold winter months cranking my organ.

I know a lot of grinders are out there right up to Christmas, but I much prefer the warm days of summer, the smell of freshly mowed grass, beer tents and chip vans!

During the winter months organs can be stripped down, cleaned out and have alterations made or even new parts incorporated. I have one friend who, during the winter made a complete new set of bellows to go with the new sets of pipes he made the previous year.

I had planned to make a set of thirteen piccolo pipes to add to the three ranks I already have.

The organ design allows for four ranks, which can be selected by pulling the corresponding draw-bar. The organ will play perfectly well with only one set, the others are the to provide variety.

It occurred to me that many of you have seen the front of the organ, but not seen the inside.

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As I have all the melody pipes out at the moment, I have taken a few pictures of the 'innards'.

Here you can see the four rows of thirteen. Thirteen notes is all I have to play the tune, or melody, on. The other pipes are for Accompaniment and Bass (not shown here).

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Each of the ranks (rows) can be selected to play by pulling out the draw-bar (brass knob!) on the right-hand side, viewed from the front. In the above picture, rank two is selected to play.

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The Accompaniment pipes sit on either side of the case.

There are three (empty pipe mounts) in the above picture and the other five are on the opposite side (see previous picture).

This one above also shows two of the three crankshafts which pump the bellows right down at the bottom of the organ, which can be seen in the first picture.

At the moment I have filled only three of those rows with pipes and this Winter I was hoping to get the final forth row built. I have sent off for the thirteen pieces of brass tube, but what with Christmas and snow, they are still to be delivered.

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Singing Chicken found at last.

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Filmed up in those foothills of Foodyland!

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Foody's Holiday Reminder.

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