This is my first MMD posting, so greetings to the MMD community from
the middle of England.  I'm an engineer by background and I've been
interested in player pianos for around 30 years.  I taught myself about
basic repairs a long time ago but have only recently embarked on my
first full restoration, so here goes...

Quite a few months ago I was given two very early Orchestrelle Company
Pianola cabinet piano players ("push-ups") by a restorer who was about
to take them to the dump (presumably because they were uneconomic for
him to restore, which I can now appreciate), and I took them on with
the aim of teaching myself restoration skills.  They are mechanically
almost identical and (I think) very early indeed, seem to be 58/65 dual
format, and have wooden tracker bars.  I have started on the later of
the two.

So far I have successfully restored the air motor and am working my way
through restoring the stack.  However, the secondary valves seem to
need rebuilding (a tiny minority of them seal well, but most leak very
badly), and I have hit a major problem in accessing them to replace
them.

Essentially, the problem is that the valve chest on this model is
partially "glued solid" and is not easily dismantled for servicing.
Does anyone on MMD have experience of restoring these very early
players, and in particular on how to get at the secondary valves to
restore them?  The primary valves seem to be okay and are easily
accessible.  I have heard from two sources that "Aeolian never made
anything that couldn't be dismantled," but this seems at odds with
the construction I can see.

I can see no other way of getting at the valves to replace the valve
leather other than by dismantling, but as the valve boards are glued
there is very little gap above them to access the valves, this is
a major problem.

In detail, the chest consists of a ladder-like construction of six
layers, three of which are glued to the back board of the chest (see
picture referred to above), interspersed with five spaces for air or
vacuum.  The whole thing looks very nice and clean, except that the
secondary valves are not sealing at all well.

It seems the valve seats (wooden pockets) are leathered with leather
rings, while the lower (vacuum) valves are plain discs of fibreboard
(not leathered).  The upper (exhaust) valve is a normal leathered disc
seating on a brass pressing.  The valve guides are extremely flimsy
fibreboard, not much thicker than postcard, and have bushings made of
fine bushing cloth which obviously comes unstuck very easily as there
is almost no surface area of glued interface to hold them in.

The unpalatable choices for dismantling seem to be to saw or steam
the chest apart or possibly to soften the glue with methylated spirit
(wood alcohol) though I've never had much success with the last
approach.  The even more unpalatable option is to give up and take it
to the dump after all!

I have spoken with several knowledgeable restorers (including an MMD
subscriber who suggested I post here), and none of them seem to have
seen anything quite like this model.  Any suggestions, particularly
from anyone who's seen one of these before (regardless of restoration
success!) would be extremely gratefully received, as it is proving to
be a lot more challenging than I had ever expected, and I don't really
want my first full attempt at restoration to be a failure.

With many thanks indeed for any help you can give.

Arthur Jones