Hello MMD.  I took the plunge a couple of weeks ago and pulled apart
my Steck Duo-Art steamboat pump.  The six big exhauster pneumatics
came off reasonably readily.  I used a wide-bladed flat knife and
a long, thin metal spatula and tapped them into the leather gasket
between each pneumatic and the central block.

I was careful not to go in more than two-and-a-quarter inches along
any side, for fear of damaging the set of internal valves.  This
worked pretty well, although I discovered why one pneumatic seemed to
be resisting my attention -- I had been trying to drive the knife into
the central block instead of the gasket!  A significant splinter of
central block came away with the pneumatic.

After prising it off the exhauster, I soaked it in water for a few
hours, and removed the remnants of gasket, before epoxying it back in
place.  A pass with an orbital sander removed most signs of epoxy on
the surface, so applying animal glue should be no problem.

I found that the removal of the old pneumatic cloth to be time
consuming; in particular, the getting off of the cover strip at the
hinge end.  Each strip is held in place by 18 copper tacks, and those
tacks really wanted to stay where they were.  I ruined quite a few
by prising at them with a half-inch wood chisel, succeeding only in
removing their heads, and, once, stabbing myself.

In frustration, I hunted out my 40-watt soldering iron, purchased about
55 years ago when I was a final year university student and circuits
were soldered together.  It worked very well; after about 30 seconds of
application of the iron to a tack head, the tack slid out easily.

I discovered that, under the cover strip and the two ends of the main
piece of heavy bellows cloth, which fold around the corners and extend
about 2" along the hinge, there is another strip of woven cotton or
linen cloth.  Was that strip glued there to form a supplementary hinge?

I was surprised to discover that the cardboard stiffeners inside
the exhauster pneumatics were not only glued to the fabric, but also
stapled to it.  The staples were obviously just made of steel, and had
rusted badly.  I am contemplating gluing new stiffeners with a modern
glue, and avoiding staples.  I'd be glad to learn any opinions about
any of the above.

John Phillips - in Hobart, Tasmania