Hello everyone.  I'm in a quandary.  I'm rebuilding a Lester two-tiered
player action and have been successful with replacing the valves (or
so I thought).  I've even contributed to this forum.  However, thanks
to a medical condition I was unable to continue work on the player
until recently.  I'm back at it now.

Anyway, I've rebuilt the valves on the Lester and, upon installing the
stack, it plays terrible.  I attribute this to the valves as everything
else is tight.  The action requires a lot of pumping (pumps are air
tight and new) and the repetition is poor.  I have some questions for
seasoned veterans of these players.  About the only thing that turned
out good is the press fit collars that I posted about earlier.

1. I replaced the valve leathers with the ones suggested by a supplier.
These are white (chrome/alum tanned?) and have a coarser grain against
the seats in the valves.  Could this be the problem?  One author
suggested these might not work due to their lack of slipping or sliding
ability once against the seats.  What is ideal for these?

2. How much wobble should they have?  I don't want them to leak around
the stem so maybe I have them too tight?

3. Valve travel -- the old valves were measured at about .055" travel.
Too much?  This is what they are currently set at.

4. Is there a better way to assemble these valves to avoid these
problems?

This piano is a 25th wedding gift to my best friend and I want it
right.  I don't do this commercially but I've done about six players
so far and enjoy bringing them back to life.  I sure hope someone out
there has the experience to help me out.  I'll give it back to the MMD
community, too, in some way.  I am pleading here.

Also, each valve was tested on a bubble jar and seemed to be fine.
However, it feels like they're not "drawing tight" once you start to
pump, and you have to pump like mad to get anywhere.

Please, if anyone out there knows what I should do next, I would so
appreciate it.

Doug Vensel
doug.vensel@twcny.rr.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]

 [ Lester valve
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/15/08/14/150814_072142_action21.jpg 
 [ Valve assembly
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/15/08/14/150814_072142_assembly.jpg 
 [ Valve components
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/15/08/14/150814_072142_components-1.jpg 
 [ Valve well
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/15/08/14/150814_072142_VALVE%20HOLE.jpg