I cannot express adequately my pleasure at the recent postings
regarding the great variety of materials use in the "restoration"
of player pianos.  So many contributors have livened up my day.
So here is my tuppence worth.

I recently had a phone call from an animal rescue centre that wondered
if I could restore a barrel organ.  Well now, I am a qualified piano
technician, so what is a mere barrel organ to someone of my supposed
skills?  :-)  Apparently the cassette (???) was giving problems.
I took this to mean that the pins of the barrel were not playing
properly.

Upon delivery I was presented with a very nice Melodia in a very
pretty green box.  I soon discovered that the problem was that the
internal car radio/cassette player was not producing any sound.  A very
efficient handle that "turned" the barrel was in fact a simple rotating
wooden wheel containing two small diametrically opposing magnets.

They continuously made and broke the power supply via some rather
clever little relay.  I do not pretend to understand the electronics
but I can well picture some infant winding away thinking that they were
a substitute for a performing monkey.

The solution was horribly easy: simply replace the cassette player with
a new one (very cheap in the UK -- nobody wants cassette tape players
these days) and modify the box to accommodate it.  Oh yes, I had to
cover the enlarged aperture with a very chic shade of green felt.

Another Melodia returned to the fold!

Roger Waring - The Pianola Workshop
Solihull, West Midlands, UK
http://www.pianola.co.uk/

P.S.:  I felt really good when it was finished, and the customer
was ecstatic.