Branded by Art Reblitz in his "Player Piano Servicing and Repairing"
book as "Uncommon", the all metal (almost) Farrand Cecilian action has
to be one of the most interesting designs placed on the market in the
era of the player piano.  The pouches are enclosed in metal chambers
held together by bend over metal tabs, sorta like the ones that hold
metal toys together.  These tabs usually break when bent to the open
position.  Until this week I had only seen one in 30+ years, and it
was so rusted that repair was worse than impossible.

Armed with my trusty digital camera, I photographed the valves,
pneumatics and stack at a mid point of re-assembly.  This unit was
taken in by Griffin Piano Company in San Antonio, Texas, and Tony
Barrera, a master craftsman, managed to save all but three of the
valve units.

I am sending the photos to Robbie to post as he pleases.  To see
the photos for yourself you can also point your browser to
http://www.txdirect.net/~egaida/farrand.html

This is definitely _not_ the action to begin your player piano
restoration career with!

Ed Gaida
egaida@txdirect.net

 [ Thanks for the great photos, Ed.  I'll make a new web page for the
 [ Farrand Cecilian player action at http://mmd.foxtail.com/Tech/
 [ -- Robbie