I recently subscribed to MMD and posted a question about the original
pump that would have been fitted to a Steck Duo-Art.  Thanks to
everyone who has replied pointing out that the "black box" is the
original housing for a Motora, and that it now houses a vacuum cleaner
motor.

A few folk also noticed the coincidence in my email address and the
fact that I was requesting information on a Steck Pianola, and asked
what the connection might be.  Having told the story to Robbie Rhodes,
he suggested I should share it with everyone by way of introducing
myself, so here goes.

Back in 1999 I bought a Steck Themodist Pianola for my daughter to
play as a regular piano.  The player wasn't in good shape but with
a lot of effort, akin to fast jogging, it would play a roll.  As an
engineer involved in pneumatic design I was also fascinated by the
mechanism, of course.

In 2001 I decided to start a business, making equipment for the food
industry, depositors in particular.  In trying to come up with a name
for it, about 50 ideas went down on a list -- all sorts of weird and
wonderful ideas, including "Steck" inspired by the Themodist.  After
going through all the usual checks for web site names, trade names,
etc., it was a pretty short list left, and Steck was finally chosen.
In return, I promised that if we ever made enough money in the business
I'd treat the Themodist to a complete rebuild!

Steck has turned out to be a good choice of name for us.  It has a sort
of Teutonic ring to it that goes down well in the UK, and while people
have to ask us twice on first hearing it, they invariably don't forget
it.  Of course its association with a piano maker is all but forgotten
in the UK now.

So fast forward to 2010.  The depositor business has had a good couple
of years and it was payback time for the Themodist.  Instead of getting
the restoration done, I decided to have a go myself; how difficult can
it be <lol>?  Anyway, bought the book by Art Reblitz book and dived in.
And I enjoyed myself no end, discovered the delights of hot glue,
leather and rubber cloth.  The restoration is now on the home straight,
just a matter of reassembly.

Of course, in reading Art's book I became taken with the idea of
finding a reproducing piano, and then coincidence took a hand and
a week or so back the Duo-Art came up on eBay very close to where
I live, so now I'm the proud owner of two Steck Pianolas!

The Duo-Art was imprisoned in a 2nd floor apartment with apparently no
means of escape.  The young lady who bought the apartment a few months
back got the Duo-Art as part of the deal -- she had to agree with the
seller he could leave it there.  It was too wide to get out the doorway,
and the original sash windows were replaced meaning that a crane would
also mean removing window frames.  The solution has been to strip it
the instrument right down to a strung back, so my office is now filled
with boxes of bits and the strung back awaits professionals moving it
down a steep flight of stairs and delivering it here.

During the dismantling it became obvious that a lot of work has been
done on it, and the number one key bears the signature of Mike Boyd,
a well known UK restorer, so I'm hopeful that after reassembly it will
play well with just a bit of tinkering.  It turns out that the black
box is original but now contains a vacuum cleaner motor; a brief
inspection shows it to have a shorted winding and shot bearings, hence
the dreadful noise and smell of hot insulation when I tried it.

By the way, we are thinking of attempting to distribute depositors
in the USA this year, so if you know of anyone in the food production
industry who wants to distribute a pneumatic depositor --

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=effYa37cs0I 

Best Regards,

Mike Wilkinson
West Sussex, UK
http://www.steckdepositors.com/ 

 [ Welcome to MMDigest, Mike.  Your next Steck acquisition should be
 [ a sturdy grand piano -- ask Julian Dyer about his Gotha Steck Grand
 [ Pianola with the cast-iron keybed!  ;-)  -- Robbie