Church organ - lubrication

[D.L. Bullock]

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D.L. here after over thirty years working on pipe organs and regular
maintenance of blowers and rectifiers.  Please Insist that your customer
find a good pipe organ technician.  I have come upon blowers that were 80-90
years old and not serviced in decades.  The motors often need attention.
You as a piano tech are not prepared to listen and look at the motor to
discover that the motor will need replacement or major rebuild.  Without
correct regular service by someone accustomed to working on old organ
blowers and their motors, this motor could literally destroy itself and
everything in the room around it.   I have seen heavy metal thrown through
concrete walls.  These motors are often half horse up to 7 or 8 horsepower,
the size of Volkswagen, and are running at thousands of RPM.  A minor wobble
from a worn motor bearing can cause spontaneous explosion of the huge blower
and motor as it wobbles itself apart at warp speed.

Just last Christmas they were preparing for the big musical special at a
Presbyterian church that had not had a tech for several years.  It had
drastically lowered in pressure for the whole organ and the blower was
making a noise.  They somehow got my number for the first time.  I got there
to find the blower blowing a shower of sparks out into the room and it would
not get up to speed.  I immediately called my local specialty motor experts
who rebuild all my Ampico and Duo Art motors and they came and got it.
After a thousand dollars it purrs like a kitten.  The interior starting
windings had been about to burn out since it could no longer click out of
start mode to get to full speed and it needed a couple of new bearings made
for it.  Any longer and it would have destroyed the motor beyond repair.
Replacement of this large blower would be about $10,000. but $1,000 got it
going for another fifty years.

After the rebuild I was given special clear oil to keep the oil bath filled
so that it will not dry out again.  Normal motor oil is no longer used for
this purpose as it contributed to some of the problems with motor burnout.

My point is find a pipe organ expert to check out the blower on ANY pipe
organ.  A pipe organ man must be a acoustical expert, a heating and cooling
man, a sheet metal worker, a plumber, a woodworker, an electronics engineer,
a motor expert, a refinisher, an expert in antiquated pneumatic systems,
very similar to player piano systems, an expert in antique electrical
systems, and a tuner.

D.L. Bullock    St. Louis
www.thepianoworld.com

Piano World

 2732 Cherokee

Saint Louis MO 63118

314-772-6676

  -----Original Message-----
  From: Cy Shuster [mailto:741662027@theshusters.org]
  Sent: Friday, July 09, 2004 10:16 AM
  To: Pianotech
  Subject: Church organ - lubrication


  I have a new customer, a church, whose pastor says they also have an organ
that needs lubrication.  I don't know anything about them (haven't been
there yet), and don't want to mess with something I don't know, but they
make it sound like a fairly routine operation.  Is it something like lubing
the blower motor?  Is this something I should attempt, or (my preference)
leave to the experts?  How would I find an organ maintenance person?  I'm
assuming it's not electronic...

  Thanks,

  --Cy Shuster--
  Bluefield, WV

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