No wonder Paul's so good at building organs -- he's dang lucky. :thumb:

Thanks to Paul's advice I re-built my hardwood strips around the top of the pressure box, which went very well. I also revised my feed spool holders with a piece of the same dimension wood as around the top of the box, so there would be no chance of them pushing back out of alignment. Once I get them sanded and finished they should look good. I'm going to build a feed spool tomorrow, and see how they work.

Spool Holders - Revised.jpgSpool Holders - Installed.jpg
 
You just move right along. It is looking real fine. I got the board built and fitted to mount my pipes on today and have the first coat of varnish on it. Maybe tomorrow I will be able to start putting my new side son and building the front of the case. Then again, maybe my wife will have other plans for me!:rolleyes:
 
Paul, sounds like you are moving right along too.

A question for you and the others --
I am working on the idler shaft. The plans call for a 1/2 X 1/2 support in the corner where the idler is supposed to be secured. Since I didn't want to drill a hole through the case to mount it, I came up with a Rube Goldberg device that fills both needs. I ground off 1/16 from each side of a 1/4 shaft, and fit it into the slot in the Goldberg device. A nail through the hole keeps it anchored, and allows only vertical movement. A touch of glue or locktite should hold the nail in place, but allow it to be removed later if necessary. Never having done this before, I'm not 100% sure it will work, but it feels good and seems to work good.
Rube 1.jpg Rube 2.jpg

My question is how to mount the idler wheel on the other end of the shaft. I've thought of just pushing on a 1/4 bearing, and mounting the bearing at the center of the wooden idler. Is there a better way?
 
Okay, here I sit at the computer again, waiting for my paint to dry.... the only thing I can see that may cause a difficulty with your shaft setup is clearance for the con-rod (or whatever it is called). I had to put a jog in mine to give added room. See picture and keep in mind the pressure box in the picture is upside down. May not be a problem, just want you to be aware of it. To attach the idler wheel, I'd just drill and tap the end of that rod and use a small bolt. My shaft is wood, I have the idler wheel/gear attached with a brass roundhead screw.
 

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John, I also did not want to drill through the case to mount mine and I came up with an idea similar to yours. Although I used a wooden shaft like Paul is using. I also had to cut into the shaft to allow room for the lid catch to pull back. Here is a shot of my organ looking down from the top.

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Hope this is useful.
 
John the screw that holds it in place is a little difficult to get an angle on so I had to carve out some of the wood from the support block in front of it to get a screw driver on the screw. If you look close at the photo you might see where I carved that out. Not pretty but necessary.
 
Such great progress being made on the current builds - I marvel at the precision and craftsmanship in the photos!
Thanks for positive feedback on my busker. The paintings are a highlight and are the work of my wife.
I've put some more pics here of the organ and of my cart. The cart is a bit of a variant on a concept posted on Melvyn's site by Wally Venable. And for the most part I am quite happy with it. It has only two wheels (sort of shopping cart like) which results in great stability once in place but makes it a bit tricky to move with the organ on top. I find that a bungee cord will keep the organ stable enough for short moves from one location to another at an event.
I have a peg (a short section of a sawed off screw on table leg) on the bottom of the organ that can go into a hole in the top of the cart. This adds to the stability of the organ when moving and makes me less nervous when I turn the organ over to guest grinders. . .
To pack it up the "Monkey Shelf" lifts off the side and, turned upside down has a similar hole to receive the peg on the bottom of the organ. This then serves as a sliding shelf to put the organ into the bottom of the cart. Between the peg and high density foam insulation the organ ends up with virtually no wiggle room so the cart can be laid on its back if needed during transport.
The drawer provides space for the most favorite rolls and for the garbage bag that is my weather back up plan.
Sliding panels go on the back of the cart to hold the drawer and organ in place during transport.
The front panel of the cart is interchangeable and we try to have a new one for each location we visit. The photos show our panel for St. Paul MN.
We will be in Holland Michigan next week. . . I had better request a painting soon. . .


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Good Saturday to all organ building wood people. I've got a few more questions for you.

Take-up Spool
I used Jay's post from a while back to install the bearing blocks. I think it lined up perfectly and it looks good. He said that he now uses roller bearings instead of the bronze hat bearings, so I decided to do the same.
-- Have any of you used the roller bearings that Jay now recommends? Maybe Jay has the answer: the bearings fit very snugly over the steel rod. I could devise a way to tap them down the rod, given space to do so. But I can't for the life of me see how I could do that on the front bearing, once there is a spool mounted on the rod. Jay -- could I trouble you for a few words on procedure to install the spool using the roller bearings. Hmmm...I was just thinking ab out it -- maybe you have to drill a bearing-size hole through support block and side of the case, and somehow tap the bearing to where it belongs from the front? Help please :huh:

Main Crank
I also bought Jay's throws for the main crank, and love them. Today I pieced together the crank, and it all seemed to go well. My question is with respect to using the bronze bushings properly.
-- the rear bushing, where the crank handle will attach -- is it preferable to install the bushing with the wide part facing in to the crank box (like I have it in my photo "cranks 3") or the other way round? It seems as though with it turned the other way, maybe it would provide a natural flat seat for the crank handle to turn against.
-- the center crank bushing -- as in the photo, the way I have it now is with the flat of the bushing facing the center throw, where it acts as a face to turn against, and keeps the crank from moving toward the rear of the organ. I am also using a simple 1/4 ply fixed mounting for the center bushing. It didn't seem like it would need to be much stronger than that, and I think I can still get the crank in and out with the center mount fixed. Is there any reason why this wouldn't work?
-- front crank bushing -- I think I will need to trim the bushing mount a bit, to fit in the idler mechanism, but again, should the bushing face in (as it is in the photo), or out, toward the front of the organ?

Cranks 1.jpgCranks 2.jpgCranks 3.jpg

Sorry for all the piddley little questions, but there is enough opportunity on this project to do things wrong -- was hoping to get this part of it right before I start gluing it together.

As always, thanks very much for sharing your experience.
 
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John, I used the hat bushings in my organ. I did not use any bearings. Bearings would be nice and I see nothing wrong with using them. A few more dollars to the cost but no down side other than cost. Look at my photo. You can see where I used the hat bushings and which way they are facing.
John, you really cant screw this up. I think either way would work just fine. If you see a better way to fit them then go for it. The other thing I will point out in my photo is that I added some collars with set screws in them to hold my crank shaft in place to keep it from sliding in and out of place. A couple of them I made by drilling out the inside of a nut to fit the shaft size the drilled and taped for a set screw. After doing two like that I went and bought the correct size collars ready made.....much easier.

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Marc, that is really a nice setup you have. May have to steal a couple of you ideas if I ever get to the cart stage.

Tom, thank for posting. I hadn't put any collars on my drive shaft and would have totally forgotten if you hadn't posted. One question, on the con rod on the right side (looking at your picture), the one on the outside of the pressure box, to you have anything like a collar to keep the rod from ever falling off the end of the shaft? I've been watching mine and it has not move towards the end of the shaft, but it makes me nervous, I don't know if there should be something there.
 
John Tom hit it right the only thing I would say about your hat bushings install it that the one going through the side might leave a oil mark. These are called oil-lite bushing because they are oil impregnated and the wood will wick the oil out that is why I make another block to mount on the inside to install the bearing in. Any oil stain will be on the inside and not be seen.

Now the ball bearings. What I do is chuck the shaft up in a drill and use a file to make sure there are no bur's on the ends then using emery cloth I sand until the bearing slide on the shaft easy they do not need to be a press fit but don't make the to loose ether. The you should be able to slide the shaft through the assembly with out problem.

Hope all of that is understandable :huh:
 
One question, on the con rod on the right side (looking at your picture), the one on the outside of the pressure box, to you have anything like a collar to keep the rod from ever falling off the end of the shaft? I've been watching mine and it has not move towards the end of the shaft, but it makes me nervous, I don't know if there should be something there.

Paul you will not need anything it will not slide off the end trust me :D
 
Thanks, Tom and Jay, for your comments. You comment about using the collars with set screws was very useful. I especially appreciated your explanation, Jay, as to why you do the bearings a certain way. It is annoying when someone says "just do this, or do that". I like to know why a thing is done a certain way, so I will know more how to do things in the future. Your information on the bearings and bushings was very helpful in that regard.
 
Thanks, Tom and Jay, for your comments. You comment about using the collars with set screws was very useful. I especially appreciated your explanation, Jay, as to why you do the bearings a certain way. It is annoying when someone says "just do this, or do that". I like to know why a thing is done a certain way, so I will know more how to do things in the future. Your information on the bearings and bushings was very helpful in that regard.

Thanks John glad I could help. If every what I post dose not make scene just keep asking until it dose. ;)
 
Had a great phone call this morning. Another local organ builder. We talked for quite a while, I'm anxious to meet him in person. If I understand, he knows a gentleman that has built the Universal. I'm anxious to hear more about that. The gentleman that called wants to have a back yard party soon with the local builders, have pizza and crank some organs. Sounds like great fun, doubt is mine will be quite ready to crank though. Maybe and maybe they can help me tune it correctly.
 
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