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Dust and ciphers - help

Bach>Meer

New member
Hi all

Work is going on around my pipe organ (maintenance work).

I hoover around the blower before I play the organ at the moment (every single time). We also cover with plastic sheeting. All the pipes are covered with sheeting.

The plastic rimmed pipe that supplies air from bellows to windchests was knocked out by a workman. I put it back and the re was a cipher.

Now, when that plastic pipe was knocked out of its hole, it was blowing air out all over the place, not sucking stuff in.

Is this cipher a coincidence or not? If you can come back to me asap with this one guys Id appreciate.

thanks
Kev
 

pcnd5584

New member
The cipher could simply have been caused by dust (from the maintenance work) falling down a pipe and onto a pallet (and then into the action), for example. It is perhaps possible that there was some dust near the hole in the wind-chest so that, when the pipe was knocked out, the pressurised air passing through the trunk (is it flexible, i.e. Kopex, or is it of wood or metal construction, apart from the plastic rim?) blew some dust into the soundboard. What type of action is it? Are there separate under-actions? For that matter, it would be useful to know what type of action(s) is/are employed. For example: tracker, exhaust/supply pneumatic, electro-pneumatic, electro-mechanical, direct electric, etc. do you know how the chests are constructed? (Are they slider chests, perhaps, or Roosevelt or even Kegellade construction?)

Which wind-chest was affected - Choir, G.O., Swell or one of the reed chests? (If the major reed stops are on separate chests, it is likely that they are supplied with a higher pressure of wind.) Did you trace the cipher? If so, what was ciphering - a whole division, or one or two ranks? Did you manage to fix it (either by removing one or more pipes), or is it still happening when the wind is turned on?

At my 'own' church here, we had some stonemasons in a few weeks ago, who used a power cutter to trim some of the paving slabs in the North Choir Aisle. Although the organ is situated in the South Choir Aisle, a large amount of dust has gone over the inside of the instrument, which is not ideal. Apparently no-one thought either to cover it up, or to contact me, inform me what was due to take place and then ask if the organ should be covered up.

Remember that plastic sheeting will only be likely to keep the worst of the dust off. In addition, be very careful when removing the sheeting, otherwise most of the dust could end up inside the instrument after all.

Where is the blower intake? (It is unlikely to be vented outside, due to possible large changes in ambient air temperature and moisture content.)

One point: if workmen (who are not trained organ builders) are walking around the inside of the instrument, then the odd cipher or two may be the least of your worries. Is there a church official who could enquire about what type of Liability Insurance the firm of workmen carry?
 
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