Recently I posted about a German reed barrel organ that had been
epoxy-glued into the case in a couple of places.  Well, yesterday 
I attacked the beast head-on and the glue turned out to be very weak
ordinary stuff, just painted over with a hard varnish that seemed like
epoxy.

So I got the organ out of the case and almost everything is in at least
decent playing condition.  I can hear enough melodic phrases and oom-pah-
pah accompaniments to tell that most of the six tunes are in 3/4 time,
making this a "Walz-orgel" in more ways than one.  Just in time for my
trip to Vienna later this week.  :-)

 [ You must visit "Zum Werkelmann" ("The Organ Grinder") at Laaer Wald 
 [ 218, Boehmischer Prater, 1100 Wien.  Proprietor Wolfgang Geissler and 
 [ his friends will teach you how to turn the organ crank with the 
 [ "Genuine Viennese Angular Twirl"!  Say "Hi" to MMDer Claus Kucher, 
 [ too!  -- Robbie

Only real problem is the keyframe finger teeth.  The fingers are wooden,
with metal teeth formed, it appears, from tacks driven through the finger
from the side opposite the barrel, and with the points flared out and
flattened, and raked (bent) in the direction of the barrel's rotation.

The flaring allows some tolerance for mis-registration with the barrel's
pins and staples, while the raking lets the pins push the finger up
without it snagging and hanging up the barrel.

Well, not quite -- a lot of keys do catch and stall the barrel.  And many
others hardly play at all.  Clearly I need to center and rake all the key
teeth the same amount, and probably replace one or two.  (There are 27
notes).

Does anyone have any advice on this?  I want to rake the teeth enough to
guarantee no hang-ups, but not so much that they can't drop in between
closely-spaced pins of repeated notes (and there are quite a few of such
musical phrases on the barrel).

It doesn't help that the fingers need almost 3/16-inch (4 to 5 mm) of
travel to properly open the reed pallets.  I'm considering making all new
teeth just to help get the tips in line.  Currently there is a wide
variation in amount of rake on the teeth; I think the over-raked teeth
got that way from snagging on the barrel too many times or just normal
wear, and the under-raked teeth (which now account for most of the snags)
from someone cranking backwards.

Arthur Ord-Hume's latest book on restoring musical boxes and clocks is
very detailed on organ clocks but quietly assumes the finger teeth are
solidly shaped correctly and doesn't help.  He does warn about pins or
stapes that have been bent back by wear, as a cause of snagging.

My organ is probably suffering extra snags thanks to the thick gold paint
that a previous, uh, restorer lavished on the barrel -- pins, staples,
and all.

Grateful for any suggestions

Mike Knudsen