The Mellotron Group

I thought I would post a few photos. Some may find these interesting. At  
some point I'll stick them up on the group page. Another video will be 
available  soon.
 
Frank  

           
Laying out the  keyboard frame
    
Pressure pads come  later.
    
Some key springs with the old  rollers.
    
Some key springs after  a nice bath in the ultrasonic hot  tub.
    
Pressure pads about to  get a nice bath
    
 
This removes all the grime and leaves them feeling refreshed  and ready for 
another 40 years of duty.
 
 

    
 
Nearly finished. Pressure pads get installed when the azimuths  are done.
 
 

    
Magnetized  capstan
    
Like one giant bar  magnet.
    
 
Once removed from the capstan this demagnetized pretty easily.  The capstan 
itself was a pain. To get it free of magnetism I struck  it vertically on a 
hard rubber mat on the concrete floor of my shop  (repeatedly). That seemed 
to realign the molecules and concentrate  the magnetism at one end. Then I 
repeatedly used the Han-D-Mag  to suck it all out. It took a longggg time. 
But it worked. I have no  idea why that pattern is in the photo. It must be 
the low  resolution.
 
By the way many machine shops that work  on race cars have the ability to 
demagnetize crankshaft and other  large steel parts. That's where I was 
headed if I couldn't figure  out a way to do it myself.
 
 

    
 
Here's something you don't see every day.
 
 

    
Since the flywheel was  off of the capstan...
    
 
...It seemed like the perfect time to align the bearing blocks  and lock 
them down tight.
 

    
 
I made these nice upper spill box brackets to replace the  cheesy wood 
wedges that were there before. This stiffens things up  considerably. 
 
 

    
A  new SMS-5
    
 
Ooh look... a brand new Streetly motor. Sweet!