I hope you all had a great holiday season. Only one ad was submitted
for this issue, so for those of you who do not have access to the web,
I took some of the For Sale and For Free ads from our web page and put
them in. I was short of material for this issue also and Fred Henn proposed
that I put in the directory of addresses for Theatre Organ Recordings from
Theatre Organ Magazine.
1. Went to Salvation Army and bought a printer cable for $1.00. I cut off the 36 pin connector and put on a 25 pin female d-sub. I cut the cable in half and made two lengths of the 25 wires (12 & 13). This was to stagger the splices to keep the diameter down. I was going to put heat shrink overall, but the 1/2 inch I had was ??? for the O.D.
2. Removed the pedal switch stick from the floor of the organ., after cutting the ground and output wires. (There are six screws to the floor. The center four screw holes in the switch stick will be used to mount the stick to the pedal assembly on angle brackets). Un-taped switch wire bundles.
3. Then I pulled each wire to trace it to the bundle that goes into the organ. Then I found each male and female pin/wire # combination and cut the corresponding # wire. Made two in-line splices and put on heat shrink tubing. I did one wire at a time because I didn't have access to the back of the organ for checking continuity at the back.
4. After the 25th pair of splices was done, the switch assembly could be picked up and examined. I cleaned and adjusted switches, and this was so easy that I decided the final mounting to the pedal assembly had to accommodate easy removal of the switch assembly.
5. The stick that the switches are mounted on is 5/8 inches high x ¾
inches deep. I nailed a 3/8 inch x 3/4 inch strip on the back side of the
switch stick. This is for two reasons. One, it protects the switch terminals.
Two, it allowed me to pass the switch stick through the table saw and cut
off the bottom 1/16 inch of the switch stick along with the extra 1/8 inch
riding against the saw fence. This 1/16 inch cut-off is to provide clearance
between the switch stick and the organ floor as the pedal assembly is pulled
out and pushed in. This saw cut is tricky, and a helper would be handy
to hold the cable now spliced on the switch wires. It worked out OK by
being careful and slow. Watch out that the eye screws aren't turned in
too far - you need 1/16+ inches to cut off.
6. Then four angle brackets were mounted onto the rear of the black support members. They are set 5/8 inches up above the bottom. This puts the switches at the same height as before, only now there is 1/16 inch bottom clearance. Note, that the two center brackets can be mounted on the centerline of the black boards, but the end ones must be moved to match the original mounting holes of the switch stick (because the black boards are fanned out). At this point you select the distance back from the pedals for clearance, and you can change switch height too, but I stayed with the original 5/8 inches. The angle brackets were 2 inch (mounted to the black board with 2 screws) and 1 1/2 inches horizontal with one hole for a # 8 screw to match those in the switch stick
7. In order to make the switch assembly easy to remove, I used binding screws. The size with #8 screws fits just snugly up into the four screw holes in the switch stick (0.200 Inches). The bottom head of the binding screw is 0.050 inches thick, still giving clearance to the organ floor. Note, since the pedals are in an arc, I bent the switch stick in an arc too, but it's not really necessary.
8. I bent up some flat bar and also connected the ends of the switch stick to the pedal frame. Probably not really necessary, but done for protection against damage when the pedal assembly is slid around. Binding screws were used here also.
9. So, to remove the switch assembly, all you have to do is pull it out from the organ, remove six # 8 screws and the whole switch assembly can be examined, cleaned or adjusted as required.
10. I also chamfered all the edges that will now be slid in and out more often. I tightened all the nuts and screws on the pedal assembly, and blew out all the dust with compressed air.
11. I used the shield on the printer cable to carry the ground to the switch assembly. At the left end, I used a phono connector to connect the output. I considered using shielded wire on the output, grounding the shield at the pedal generator end, and carrying this ground to the switch assembly, but again, the organ was against the wall.
12. Actual working time, about 16 hours, but a lot of plans were scuttled along the way. The binding screw idea was the key to easy switch removal These can be found in hardware stores with that big assortment of stuff in plastic pull-out trays.
I hope you get the idea from the above. I'll try to answer any questions. Removing the switch assembly to work on it is so slick, that others may want to do this too. So, edit it as you see fit, and put it in ON if you like."
If you have any questions, contact Larry at: lhsmith@srv.net
I noticed a Schober Rhythm Board is available on Ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw?cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?
ViewItem&item=1406940584 I thought someone here might be interested
in it.
Alexander Kruedener, 161 East 89 Street, Apt. 4E, New York, NY 10128, (212) 831-0662. Kruedener@juno.com