Coordinators Report - Photoplayer Restoration Trust, February 2014

For the last three months work on the photoplayer has continued at a
good pace although we have not had meetings over the Christmas period.
In this time I have made three trips to Hamilton to inspect the work
and also one trip to Auckland to pick up a photoplayer piano that was
shipped from America.

Work on the photoplayer is now well underway.  We have a keyboard that
looks brand new but with the damage clearly visible where rats have
chewed and splicing has taken place.  The keys have all been treated
with epidurl [epoxy resin] which is a fibreglass substance which adds
strength to the keys and stops any borer attacking them from now on.

To accommodate the keys the piano deck has had all the rotten timber
removed and new American poplar put in its place.  The key frame has
been reassembled and the rocker rail out of the 135 piano keys has been
modified so that it now fits under the key bed.  New felts and pins
have been added to the key frame and we had it here in Opotiki for the
A & P [Agriculture & Pastoral] Show.

In early January we found a G style photoplayer piano for sale in
America and were able to purchase it for $1300.00.  This piano has been
a very good buy for us as it has enabled us to move forward much faster
than we anticipated and has provided excellent forensic research and
a lot of missing parts for us to harvest.  It has supplied a set of
original pedals, numerous small items which we could only guess at, and
showed us how parts of the piano were put together when it was first
made.

The G style photoplayer was a much smaller instrument than the K.
It only had one side case which housed mainly drum and percussion
instruments and was often used in funeral parlours around America.
One of the most important finds was the registry box.  Although small,
only 6 valves, it shows to us how our bigger registry boxes were put
together.  It also has the small valve which we have not been able to
get a copy of from America.

[Piano technician] Kevin Hanna is going to use the back posts of the G
and after re-crowning will use the sound board also.  This has probably
saved four month work bringing us nearly back in line with the original
estimates of finishing stage 2, the building of the piano.

On the 14th of January I travelled to Auckland and picked up the G and
delivered it to Kevin.  Parts of the G have been harvested for use and
Kevin's estimate of time saved and parts retrieved would be around
$12,000.00.  The last trip to Kevin was to return the parts borrowed
for the A & P Show in Opotiki and to inspect the work up to this
present time.

Our display at the A & P Show was a great success and drew a lot of
attention from those attending.  It was a bad day weather-wise but I am
happy to say that we had a lot of contact with young families in their
twenties and thirties as well as a lot of the older people in the
community.  This is all good.

Kevin and I have put together a monthly expectation of work starting
from the 18th February and going through for 8 months, finishing with
the completion of the piano and stage 2.  We estimate that by
mid-September we will have a playing piano completed.  This is three
month behind the original date of June 2014.

At this stage I am starting to put together plans for an application
for funding for stage 3 of the project.  This is the building of
the side cases including the pipework and the percussion instruments.
The cases themselves are just a five sided box, no embellishments and
a fancy front.  They shouldn't take Kevin more than five minutes to
cut out!  They will be sent away to have veneer.

For the instrument case we have all but one part which is the train
effect.  We now have all the Vox pipes, all the Trumpet pipes, all the
Flute pipes and we are only missing some of the Cello pipes which we
can have built for us in America by Bruce Newman.  The wind chests are
perhaps the most complicated part of the pipe case with lots of small
parts which will keep Kevin and Nathan busy for quite some time.

Dennis has come up with a stainless steel manufacturer who will laser
cut the needed valve heads for us.  Denis will provide him with a set
of plans for his computer and he will insert them into waste material
which he normally throws away during the laser cutting process.  He
says it may take him several weeks to cut enough from the waste but we
will not have to pay for the cost of the stainless steel, only toward
the laser cutting itself.  I am inquiring of Timothy [Westman] in
America if he thinks there would be a market for us to sell excess
valves to people over there.  This could give us some needed income to
cover some of our costs.

At this time we did not receive funding from the Lion Foundation for
the rent for our shed here in Opotiki.  This is unfortunate and I am
trying quickly to obtain funding elsewhere.  We have made application
to the Waikato Trust for funds to take the photoplayer to the Home and
Garden Show in Hamilton in October-November this year.  The organisers
of the show are very keen to use this as an advertising gimmick for
their show.  It will be the first we have a full piano to display.
Kevin will also have a Pianola on site and we hope to sell un-usable
parts as souvenirs to the passing public.

Regards,

Don Paynter - The Photoplayer Restoration Trust
Opotiki, New Zealand
http://www.photoplayer.org.nz/