A lot has been written through the years about various materials used
in rebuilding the pneumatic units of player pianos.  As new materials
appeared on the market they were tried and the results reported in the
bulletins and publications of enthusiasts' groups.

I have been reading some of those old bulletins and publications, and
many of the "new and improved" materials tried in the seventies, and
even eighties, have just not held up to the test of time.

Perflex was hailed as the perfect replacement for tan pouch leather.
New pouches could be laid using synthetic glue, and the dishing of
pouches could be formed by an ordinary hair dryer.  In the long run,
the Perflex "remembered" its former configuration and the dishing of
the pouches disappeared.

The Austin Organ Company could probably write a book about using
Perflex in pipe organs, as they had to replace it with what they still
use to this day: tan pouch leather.  The glue used for Perflex is
difficult to remove from wood and makes nasty mess.

Self-adhesive sponge neoprene was another material presented for use
in valve facings.  It was so easy to use -- just punch it out and apply
to the valve button and you were finished.  In a short time, however,
the sponge began to slide sideways on the valve as the adhesive aged.
I can remember a rebuilder having to replace the valves in an entire
Coinola stack.

I am sure that the tanning methods of today are not as good as they
were 100 years ago, but tan pouch leather in my opinion is still the
best replacement for pouches.  As for sealing pouches, I have used egg
white for years with no adverse effects.  Just rub it on as you would
apply rubber cement and dust with talc.  An added advantage is the
absence of noxious fumes given off by rubber cement and its thinner.

Cork used as a packing material for joints dries out and loses its
resiliency.  Standard Pneumatic used leather for packed joints.  Amphion
(Ampico) used cork.  True, cork can be manufactured with a uniform
thickness,  but I cannot help but think that cork was less expensive
than leather, and that factor alone dictated its use.

Shellac is an effective sealer, and anyone who has tried to rebuild
Ampico unit valves that were glued together with white glue, and sealed
with PVC-E, knows that it is far easier in the long run just to get
another set of original valves and start over.

The rubber cloth sold today by supply houses which is imported from
Australian is of high quality.  The heaviest bellows cloth available is
still too light to use on rotary pumps.  The kangaroo hide sold is also
much to thin to take the beating of constant flexing in Ampico and
Duo-Art pumps.

Some of the finest heavy bellows cloth ever produced, and the longest
lasting, was black on one side and gold on the other, and sold by
Player Piano Company in the seventies and eighties.  A large Western
Electric orchestrion pump is still going on that cloth, and it was
rebuilt over twenty years ago.  It shows NO obvious signs of wear, and
has seen thousands of plays in that period of time.

In my rebuilding, I have always tried to stick to those materials that
were originally used.  The results have been satisfactory.  The cloth
that has "given up" the most has been the motor and governor cloth,
especially the wine colored kind.  It gets stiff and hard far sooner
than the cloth used on the striker pneumatics.  The Australian motor
cloth is far too stiff for wind motors, in my opinion.

Shellac, tan pouch, cabretta, suede for packing -- all these work
today, just as well as they did in the past.  The lasting qualities
may not be as great due to the different methods used to prepare them.

Ed Gaida