Hi All,  I just finished restoring both the primary and secondary
valves of my Ampico "A" (Mason RA) with the red pouch leather from
Leather Supply.  Although I have not put the player back together,
I have tested each valve (primary and secondary in series) and was
able to get them all to operate in a test fixture on less than 3"
of water vacuum.

Although Mike Madeira claims that the leather is pretty airtight,
I found that it needed to be sealed like any other pouch material.
I tested and sealed each pouch using a bubble jar so I could see
when the sealing was complete, and could also see that each pouch
did, in fact, seal.

Per Mike's recommendations I used "Best Test" rubber cement (by
Union Rubber Co.) thinned 50/50 with Union Rubber's "Bestine" thinner
for the secondary pouches.  (I found it at a Michael's craft store.)
However, for the primaries, I used "Hydrophane" as recommended by our
UK friends.  (I hope the Hydrophane experiment is successful over the
long term!)

The only difficulty I had was that the red leather thickness varied
from 0.007" to 0.011" in some places.  So order a little extra and
expect that you may have to do some sorting to get the right thickness.
(I measure it with dial calipers.)

I also obtained from Mike all the valve facing leather for the two
sets of valves.  He also supplied the packing leather to seal the
primary chest and the secondary valve gaskets where they attach to the
player stack.  This is far superior to the cork that was originally
used.  I found that it was not a difficult job to punch all the
gaskets and valve facings.

Mike Madeira is a real pleasure to talk to and he is a great resource.
He claims that the red pouch leather is equivalent to the German
material but is more available and affordable because it does not need
to be imported.

Pat DeWitt
Fort Wayne, Indiana