O/T: Free Cragslist score!

[Hemi Joel]

We found this old relic on craigslist for free last weekend. It was inoperable, and the owner was moving out of state, so he decided to give it away. Cam and I trailered it home, and with in a couple hours, we had it running. I've never worked on one of these before, but it wasn't too hard to figure out once I studied it for a while. Fixed a few large vacuum leaks, free'd up some sticky vlaves, and that was all it took. It still needs a bunch of work, like a good tune up, and maybe even a motor, but we are having so much fun with it every time we go out to the shop, that it is interfering with getting our important work done.  I know, it's not an FE, but FE's weren't invented yet when this thing was built.

We put a couple vids up on you tube:

http://youtu.be/nC6lV07xDAs

http://youtu.be/ZIKvtfrEMK8

http://youtu.be/iWdAr99-c_Q

What do you think??

Joel

[jayb]

LMAO LOL!!   That thing is super cool, and it is exactly the ticket in your garage...

[Heo]

  Ahhh there is a way even for me to
play the piano

[machoneman]

That's frikken hilarious. Somebody spent some dinaro to have modern music paper rolls made up for 60's era songs, at least Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.  Often, the rolls are shot due to aging and are a darkish yellow. Yours are white, indicating more modern rolls. Btw, who was the maker and is there a serial number? Look inside by the soundboard behind the strings. Then , with this info, you can purchase an amazing amount of modern music (or oldies) to play. Don't think they are up to Lady Gaga's stuff (hah!) but how about some Doors, Hendricks or Elvis?

Btw, no expert here but do not clean the keys (!) until you find out what they are made of. If they are real ivory, you scored big as a pro restorer would buy the keys alone for mucho dinaro (must be still thinking of Cicno de Mayo this a.m. LOL) or the whole piano. It's hard to tell from the vids but they sure look like real ivory.  Very cool and save his linky below!   

http://www.petesummers.com/faq.html#section8

[Hemi Joel]

They are definetely real ivory. The fellow that we got it from knew a lot about pianos, his dad used to repair them. he gave us some extra ivory key tops

I've got to figure out how to motorize this thing!

[66Bird]

Joel,
As I grew up, my dad was a piano technician. We had lots of player pianos come through his shop. You got a good one, if you got it working that quickly. In order to automate it, you will put the pump right after the bellows. I'm sorry, but I don't remember what cfm pump he used. I seem to remember that he used old vacuum cleaner motors. I say that because they were always so loud. I can't tell you if he used the blower, or sucking side either. I do know that it was low pressure, high volume. He would always put a reostat in line with the motor, to regulate the motor speed. With it cranked up, it would always get loud, and play a bit faster. At low volume, the motor could always still be heard over the piano. If you find rolls for your piano, be aware that the "newer" rolls from about 1960 and up are only 66 key rolls. The older rolls are 88 key rolls.  Good luck with your new beer drinking toy!
Dan