Vintage Synth Repair

On Monday 14 April 2008 14:41, hermine wrote:
> At 10:38 AM 4/14/2008, you wrote:
> >On Monday 14 April 2008 13:15, hermine wrote:
> > > I have no idea whether or not one should use anything like WD 40 on a
> > > Hammond; the only person I know who says he is an "expert" on their
> > > restoration and upkeep says he will never use Hammond brand oil on
> > > them, but ........
> >
> >No? So what do they use instead?
>
> I am afraid to ask because I could get yelled at. but i will ask.
> anyway. i think the fellow at one time sold his own concoction, but
> he does make an INTERESTING case for his view, let me see if I can
> find his website so I do not wind up speaking FOR him and getting
> yelled at...

Yelled at?  I wouldn't put up with that...

> gimme a sec.....Steve Leigh is the guy, and i met him through a common
> interest in DOG TRAINING, not music at all....he is a repository of
> trillions of facts, and capable of organizing them to perfection....

Well,  I'm a bit of an information packrat too,  the organizing part lagging 
somewhat.  :-)

> I am at his website and looking for the reference to Hammond
> Oil....

Would that be on this page here:

http://www.sl-prokeys.com/prokeys/generator.htm

?

I can see the point of what he's saying there up to an extent,  but no way 
would I believe that dirt particles are going to get carried along what he 
calls wicks and into the bearings.  What I have found to have happened,  on 
some occasions,  is that the old oil,  particularly in units that aren't 
played much,  tends to let its lighter fractions evaporate and what's left 
_is_ kinda gummy.  I did a service call some years ago,  back when I was 
still doing that sort of thing,  as it turns out right here in the town where 
I've been living for the past several years now.  You'd hit the switch and 
the tone generator wouldn't run _at all_.  But the unit hadn't been played 
for something like 8 years!  I found that I could turn the shaft of the 
generator by hand,  with some effort.  So I added some oil,  and turned it,  
and added some more,  and turned it,  and continued this way for a while,  
and eventually it got to the point where the gummy residue was sufficiently 
duluted by fresh oil that I was able to hit the switch and it'd start and run 
normally.  I let it run for quite a while,  and told the customer to let it 
run for several hours,  then try it the next day,  and if it didn't start 
right up to call me and I'd come back and help it out some more.  I didn't 
hear from them,  so I guess it was okay.

I notice too that he seems to not mention what he's using there.  And that he 
says that _all_ tonewheel generators have a start motor and a run motor -- 
this isn't the case.  I don't recall specific models any more,  as it's been 
over 20 years since I made most of my living from fixing organs,  but there 
were a number of models that had just the on-off switch,  and no separate 
start switch like the early ones did.  I'm guessing that early on the 
synchronous motors that were available didn't have enough torque to get 
things started,  while later motors did.

> in the same general vicinity he talks about a material used in 
> sealing the machinery in later Hammonds, which crumbles with time and
> makes a terrible mess, and I sure hope I do not encounter this stuff
> when I get into opening my T 211-1 to remove its Leslie and take it
> to the fixit guy.

Would that be this page here:

http://www.sl-prokeys.com/prokeys/manual.htm

?

I encountered some of that deteriorated foam while working on my car recently, 
in the dashboard!  I've also seen it in other places as well.  That bit about 
the broken resistance wire is a nasty problem,  and I don't like having to 
deal with that,  but weeks?  Nah.  I had a spinet once that belonged to 
a "cat lady" that suffered some damage in that area.  It wasn't gonna take me 
_weeks_ to trace through.  That was a pretty nasty situation too.

> http://www.sl-prokeys.com/prokeys/pro.htm
>
> this is where you start to look around, the website is huge, and you
> probably already know who he is, right?

Nope,  never heard of the guy.  But that's no surprise. I worked on organs a 
bunch,  starting in 1975 and stopping maybe 10-12 years later,  when things 
had tapered off pretty much.  But there are an awful lot of people out there 
who deal with this stuff,  no surprise that I've never heard of him.

So what's the problem with the Leslie?

-- 
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space,  a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed.  --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James 
M Dakin