Having silently observed the brouhaha about glues and leather,
etc., I'm going to stick my neck out, knowing that I'll be roundly
chastised for what I did.

In 1985 I rebuilt the famous Mitsukoshi Wurlitzer organ, Opus 2099.
No problem on the organ proper but, as it was originally a residence
organ, destined for the dining room of a New York tycoon who jumped
out his office window when the stock market crashed in 1929, it was
equipped with a Wurlitzer R-20 player and 200 rolls, many played by
Jesse Crawford.  (Grammarians, try parsing that sentence!)

Unfortunately, all the rolls were destroyed in the 1944 incendiary
bombing of Tokyo.  The only one remaining, still installed in the
player, was "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere" played by Henry Murtagh.

We searched high and low all over the world, but could not find any
rolls at all anywhere.  The store wanted the player but, with no rolls,
and all the tubing turned to mush, we had no choice but to cannibalize
the player for magnet valves for the organ, 272 of which were burnt out.

I contracted to build a new player using a Wurlitzer 165 band organ
roll frame and a dozen rolls from Play-Rite.  Since this was not
a restoration but a completely new unit, I was not restricted to using
traditional materials.

I used Doyle Lane's plastic valves (with leather, not Perflex) and made
my noomatics with a maroon Polylon cloth from PPCo, glued with PVC from
the same source.  Each noomatic had a magnet glued on to the moving
piece with SuperGlue (called Aron Alpha here) which when closed fired
a reed switch.  To compound the heresy, I attached the noomatics to the
stack with double-sided tape!

The organ has been played every day since November, 1985.  One (1)
noomatic fell off; three (3) I had not glued the Polylon very well, and
had to redo them.  They peeled right off, and went right back on after
toothpicking PVC in.

The player is used at the end of the day, the other three programs (at
10 A.M., 12 noon and 3 P.M.) being played by real hoomins.  A complete
Wurlitzer roll, usually ten tunes, is used.

Now, I am _not_ recommending these procedures for restoration projects,
but just reporting what I did.  Anyone like to calculate how many times
those little noomatics opened and closed?  I figure 7754 days -- you do
the math!  If you are going to make a new stack for a band organ or
converting a player to an orchestrion, you might consider these
suggestions.

Hope nobody has a conniption fit over this, but I think I did okay.

Vic Searle in Tokyo