Merry Christmas

Hello to all!

Let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

It has been quite the year here at Ulm Orgelwerke and I have this distinct sense that the upcoming will be just as interesting. Only time will tell.

As the new owner, I will be changing many things. However, the things that have made this company a success will not change: the drive for quality, ethical business practices, and an openness to change will all still be a part of UO under the second generation of ownership.

New procedures, new attitudes, new avenues to explore-all of these will make UO the "builder of choice" now and into the future.

Thank you to all of our customers and suppliers. Best wishes for a prosperous new year.

Drew E. Meyer

Major Changes!

Hello to all!

Ulm Orgelwerke is proud to announce new ownership! Mr. Drew E. Meyer has purchased the organization from founder Howard Nolte. There will be many new things happening in the next few months. Please stay tuned for all of the latest news!

Humor on the Job......

You have to admit that there is humor in church. After all, God made you. This sign was found in the balcony of one of our "out west" customers. Sorry about the quality, my litle digital camera has been dropped, kicked, and generally mishandled; and it shows. For those that can't read it, the sign says: "Home of the OK Chorale"

We're Back.......

HI all,

Well, we have survived our trip to the wild west and frozen north. (Montana and North Dakota, respectively) However, the wild west was anything but wild and the frozen north was warm enough to be in shirtsleeves almost every day.

We had the opportunity to work on a fine instrument in Montana. The 18 rank Estey (tubular, no less!) was in great shape and the sound was wonderfull. I could have played for hours. Then again, I say that about a majority of our instruments.....at any rate, it was fun to work on.

We also had the opportunity to work on a one manual Vogelpohl that dates to 1917. It is in a church that is not heated in the winter, so the instrument is in nearly new condition-even the leather is still original. The sound on that thing is wonderful, it could easily lead singing in a building five times the size on the one that it is in.

Now I am back in Lennox for a week of paperwork before we continue the tuning tours.

Definition:

Manual: In organ terminology, a keyboard. "It is a two manual and pedal instrument."

From the North Country.....

Hello, we have just finished our annual "get your feet wet" tuning tour to the Arrowhead region of Minnesota. The leave were just prior to peak and a joy to look at. Lake Superior always fascinates me.

Now, off to North Dakota for a couple of weeks.....

WOW! & Congratulations!

We at Ulm Orgelwerke want to congratulate our next door neighbor, Pat Fossum. For those that don't already know, Pat matched all five white balls in the October 12, 2005 Powerball Lotto drawing. She also had the Powerplay option, so she is South Dakota's newest millionaire!

She is also very camera shy, so I don't have a picture for you.

Congratulations Pat! Now about that $650,000 left over after taxes.......

Also, we will be away in the wilds of North Dakota for the rest of October, so postings may be a little sparse between now and then. If you are one of our regular customers, expect us on your church doorstep sometime between now and December 15th!

Continuing Preparations

Hello all,
we are still making preparations for the start of tuning season on Monday, October 11. I am spending a lot of time in the office working on my computer. Because I am there, our VCU/CAT system has entered "sleep mode."

Here is a picture of the system as it often appears these days. Sleep mode conserves an emormous amount of energy...so we are glad to be able to save. Just one of the many ways we stretch your dollar here at Ulm Orgelwerke.

(P.S. if you think this is bad now, wait until December when I am totally washed out, then the jokes get REALLY bad!)

From the Vault.....

Hello Again,

Well, things in the shop are starting to calm down, but the office is starting to heat up. We are in preparation for the fall tuning season-which starts in five days, yikes!

Since I don't yet have any pictures of tuning, I decided to pull something from the archives.....

To the left is a shot of the relay and junctionboard of one of our instruments in NE SD. In the forground is the junction panel (backside) Each one of the little pins is then connected to a pipe valve in the windchest. In the darker area at the back is the actual relay. In this case, it is a microprocessor driven system (ie a computer) that "decodes" signals from a similar unit in the organ console about 30 feet away on the other side of the wall......

I hope to have some more pictures of tuning and also of our outstanding VCU/CAT system in a week or two.

An Unfortunate Announcement

Hello to all.....

We are preparing for the fall tuning season....10-12 weeks of travel and around 150 organs to tune. This is also the time of year when we thoroughly tune the instruments.

Because of the extremely sudden rise in gasoline prices, we have been forced to add a 10% fuel surcharge to all of our fall tuning statements. This is not something that we want to do; however, we will face a loss if we do not.

Also, we are pleased to announce that another Kilgen organ is now available for purchase. One Manual, 6 Ranks. More information is available by contacting us directly.

Best wishes for the fall season.

Hello Again

Hello all,

After nearly a month of working elsewhere, I am back in the shop getting ready for the fall tuning season.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, the organ that we have been reassembling this summer is for sale again. It is a six rank Kilgen. It would work for a small church or home installation. Installation is available and the price is negotiable, but somewhere in the $25,000 range.

Soon, there will be pictures of the work on the console rebuilding process for a Catholic Church in southern Minnesota. Thank you all for your patience this last month.

Data Security

Hello all.....Just wanted to let you know that while Howard and I are off doing other things, the data you have entrusted to us is secure.....we have installed the new security system called CAT (Capture All Trespassers) This is what an intruder would see if they tried to get to the sensitive data stored on my computer. CAT is a new module attached to the VCU (Vermin Control Unit - see July postings) Ulm Orgelwerke is proud to be able to offer this service to our customers......

At any rate, we are off to Springfield, MN to secure an organ during a church construction project. We will be removing pipes to safe storage, sealing the swell chamber, great chest, and blower system from dust; and covering the facade of the instrument. There will be pictures this weekend.

Summer Diversions

Well, things are a bit slower here at UO now. The Stone Church Organ is at a stage where we will need some further input from the purchaser to proceed much further.

Howard will be in North Dakota doing some emergency repair work and delivering the console mentioned earlier.

I will be taking some time off to work for another company for few weeks also. I will still be posting regularly.

A Side Trip Completed

This is a picture of the entire console with the top and two keyboards in their extended positions. This way both sides of things are relatively accessible. "Relatively" is a relative term however. Whatever you need to get at will invariably be in the area right around the hinges or some other unaccessible place. The bottom keyboard folds and the top keyboard comes down and then the upper box locks them both in place. This arrangement, or some variation thereof, is the standard way that non-tracker organs are built today.

A Side Trip Continued......

Whew! That was a disgusting job. Anyway, now the keyboard is clean and I can point out some details. As I said before, this is an electromechanical console. That means that both the organist's force and electricity are used to control the instrument. (As opposed to the all-organist or mechanical action of the Stone Church organ that we are working on.)

The fulcrum of the keys is the red and black dots in the center. The return springs are just visible next to the metal bar at the back. Underneath the metal bar are little levers that the keys push up. That moves a contactor bar under the white area to touch one or more metal leads. If a circuit is completed, a note sounds, if not-well, it doesn't. There are one or two other things going on under the white bars, but without clear pictures it is impossible to really explain. Trust me, it works.

A Side Trip.....

Hi there, today I spent the day working on a small project for a customer. They have purchased a "pre-owned" console for a organ project of their own. Unfortuneatly for me, the console had to be cleaned up before it left the shop. Above you can see what an electromechanical keyboard looks like. You can also see the results of some little living creatures who decided to move in during storage. While they have been evicted (VCU is active) it is still a mess.

Where?

In this rotated photo, the original owner of the instrument is clearly visible.

First Scandinavian Lutheran Church
Winona, MN
Rev. H. J. Rasmussen

The Kilgen "K" is also visible. Humorously, the "keep dry" stamp is off to the left.

Restoration Dilemmas

Hi there! Here is an example of the question: "How far do you go when 'restoring' something"? The two pictures here clearly show the damage that water has done to the swell case, so do I take water to "clean" it up? If not, do I leave it dirty?

In this case (no pun intended) I decided to take the lesser route. I have vacuumed off all of the oxidized paint and dirt that I can scrape with the vacuum brush and left whatever I couldn't remove.

The picture on the left is of the top of the swell case. There is clearly still about 30 years worth of dirt there, but to remove any more, I would have to use water. The picture on the right shows what water does to this paint. So, I guess I will say that the dirt is "historical" also.

Chest Surgery - Part Last

Here is what half the pipes look like on the pedal chest.

The little hole in the front is where the wind connects to the windchest. (For definitions, see the Monday, July 11 posting...after all, you are supposed to be learning something here!)

The hooks on the front will connect to a board down the center to keep the pipes on the straight and level.

The Pipe and I

This is yours truly with the largest and lowest sounding pipe in the organ. It is the lowest "C" of the pedal Bourdon set. When playing, the air inside will be vibrating at about 32 cycles per second. Three of the next four pipes are leaning against the set of pipes on the wall.

For a sense of scale, I am about 6'5" in height.

Not really visible are the markings on each one. They are identical and read:

First Scandinavian Lutheran Church, Winona, MN

Yep, that is the church that originally bought the instrument in 1909-1910. If anyone out there can help us find some information about this congregation, email me at: organ2@iw.net

Chest Surgery - Part Third

In this picture we have flipped the chest right side up and Howard is cleaning/buffing the leather seals on the pallets. Note the dirt on the pallets on either side of Howard's hand. Ick....do I have to repeat the "keep the wind clean" speach again?

Chest Surgery - Part Second

Howard is holding up one of the pallets. It is made of wood, felt, and leather. This is the number one reason we are always harping on keeping the wind clean. One small piece of sawdust will lodge in the felt and then the pallet can not seal completely. You now have air leaking wear it isn't supposed to be. This causes noise and irritation to anyone listening.

Once again, this chest is upside down. Normally, a pallet spring holds the pallet closed against gravity. Here the springs and rail have been removed for cleaning.

Cue next slide......

Chest Surgery - Part First

Here is a picture of the pedal windchest with its bottom boards removed. The pallets are clearly evident.

A Real Sticking Point

Ok, so it was a bad joke, I'm an organbuilder-it is part of the job description.......

The picture at left shows the relationship of the keys to the stickers. You press a key, the sticker moves up, presses one end of the rocker arm up and the other moves down, and pulls the pallet down admitting wind to the pipe.

The picture at right shows a bit more of the stickers themselves. They are nothing but wooden dowels with tiny rods drilled into them. We add a red felt washer for noise control and a little bit of wear reduction.

In both pictures the rollerboard is evident. For reasons of space and centering, it is desirable to split the bottom octave of pipes into two sections. Unfortunately, most musicians insist on having sequential note orders, so some way has to be found to move the motion to the opposite side....enter the rollerboard. Here, every other key connects to one end of the rollerboard, just visible at the opposite end is the connection to the proper rocker arm. It is the same process with a horizontal shift. (aye, organists are shifty folk.......)

(No, I have not yet cleaned the keys themselves, that is much later......)

Some more definitions:

Rollerboard: A device that uses rollers to move the physical force from the trackers in a horizontal orienation.

Rocker Arm: A device to move the physical force from the keys along a horizontal plane.

Sticker: A vertical tracker. Usually used when the distance travelled is less than 6 inches.

Pedals Part Four....

After much Murphy Soap, Lemon Oil, Bees Wax, and Graphite the pedalboard is back together and looking new.
In the picture on the left you can just see the newly leathered pin near the top center. The variantions in color that are visible on the pedals illustrate one of the problems of restoration: how far do you go? While I could have removed all the dirt from the pedals, I would have probably taken the finish with it. So, to save some authenticity, I have used the same process for each pedal and just left it that way.

In the picture on the right the pedal board and first pedal square rail have been positioned in the approximate relationship to each other. When fully assembled, the squares will connect to the pedals with a short sticker. They will also connect to the second square rail at the back of the instrument from the top. The resulting action will be that the pedal is pressed down, the square will pull on the tracker, the correct square on the second square rail will be pulled forward, the square will pull the pallet down, and hopefully a reasonably musical sound will come from the pipe.

For those that missed them, here are some definitions:

Square: A wood or metal device that changes the orientation of the physical energy carried by trackers.

Square Rail: A frame that holds a number of squares in the proper position.

Pallet: the supports and sealing surface of the device that blocks or allows air to the pipes.

Tracker: the physical device (usually a long thin piece of wood) that connects the key to the pallet.

Down and Dirty......

The pedals have been removed from their (very dirty) frame and are ready for cleaning. The spring that keeps the pedal up is visible under the first one near the hammer. Note the wear marks on the left end. This is where the old leather had actually worn away some of the wood of the pedal. Uh, I think we better fix that, Howard.........

Technical Difficulties.....

Technical Difficulties...please stand by

How many of us are old enough to remember that phrase from the pre-cable tv era?

Anyway, we have had some technical difficulties with our internet service and are now (hopefully) back up and on-line. (Expect a LOT of new content in the next 24 hours or so....)

Pedalboard Part Two

These are the pins that hold the pedals in place. The second picture shows how the leather had been worn off and dried out over the last few decades. The first picture shows the pins before and after I sanded the old leather off. Tomorrow I will glue on new leather and replace the pins in the frame. After that, I just need to wash the pedals themselves and replace them.

Pedalboard Part One

Today was a wonderful day...only 71 degrees....it felt cold!

But anyway, today I started on the refurbishing of the pedalboard. Nothing like 97 years worth of grime to make a guy want to clean something!

In this picture, the topboard from the back of the pedalboard has been removed as have the spacer bars- leaving nothing but lots of dirt and 97 year old felt pieces.

The dirt is evident from the very visible rings on the spacer bar. Remember, this was facing DOWN for the last 97 years.

A Great Cloud of Witnesses

Hello all, for those that don't know what "The Stone Church" looks like, this is for you. I won't reveal the location of the church here for security reasons, but I did want to point out a few interesting things.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perserverance the race marked out for us." Hebrews 12:1

The foundations of the Stone Church predate the Civil War, with the completion of the stone section immediately following. It is my understanding that the entryway/bell tower was added at a later time (as was the wooden sections at the rear of the building). It appears that the cemetery started to the right of the church and has worked its way around over the last 150 or so years. To the left of the church, and out of the photograph, is again as much cemetery. The oldest grave I found in my brief time there was 1859.

Another bit of amusing history is the fact that the building was actually constructed on the dividing line between two townships. The story is that it was placed there so that there would be no division as to which township the church was in. As you can see in the second picture, there is no dividing line down the center aisle at the present time!

The second picture is there to show the interior and the location of the new/old instrument. It will be placed approximately where I am standing. It will fill the space between the wall and the heat register and come forward about six feet; which is about two feet in front of where I am standing. In the picture I am trying to hide the H****** instrument. (That is a dirty word when you are an organ builder!)

I particularly like the altar/reredos. It is a marvelous piece of woodwork and American Folk art. The parent church is to be commended for its desire to preserve its history and share it with everyone.

Pedal Chest and Board

Yes, work continues even with a rogue VCU on the loose........

One the left is a picture of the pedal chest. Once again it is upside down and the pallets are showing. This chest does not have sliders as only one rank is placed on it. The stop is controlled by a ventil.

Ventil: A valve that admits or denies wind to a set of pipes. It may control just one set (as in American organs of the last several centuries) or several sets (most often seen in French Organs of the 1800's and 1900's where the reeds were so controlled.)

In a Ventil chest, the individual note pallets open whenever the key or pedal is pressed. The ventil controlls whether wind is present or not. When there is wind, there is noise. The pallets and pallet springs are somewhat visible in the picture. (Inexpensive digital camera and unsteady hand, sorry)

The center picture shows the pedalboard in front of the instrument. This pedalboard will be completely taken apart, cleaned, new felt added (for noise reduction), and reassembled in the rebuilt instrument.

Also visible laying on the insulation bags are the case posts. I was holding one of these in an earlier post. The back side of the pedal chest is also visible at left.

VCU Malfunction.......

Here the VCU (Vermin Control Unit) mentioned in a previous post has malfunctioned and determined that yours truly is vermin and needs to be controlled.

This particular VCU is also known as CAT (contantly attracting trouble).

Also, the pedal windchest has been extracted from the pile and restoration has begun there as well. I will have pictures later this weekend.

A Lot of Air......

This is the back of the instrument. This particular instrument was hand pumped for the first half century of its life. Yep, it took two people: one to pump and one to play.

Basically, you just raise and lower the pump handle. It is attached to two bellows underneath the reservoir. One is always discharging wind and the other is drawing in air. The springs that provide the pressure are also visible.

It is not that hard to pump, unless you have an organist that likes to play big chords with all the stops on.......

The opening for the electric blower still exists. The purchaser has not decided if they will install the blower or just use the pump.

I will say this though: this gives a whole new meaning to the term: "aerobic exercise."

Springs and Things....

Here is a shot from the side. You can see the four rows of pipes on top. Also, the bellows at the bottom is visible. Those are springs on top of the reservoir. They provide the pressure to regulate the wind.

The piece going up at an angle is a wind trunk. It is made of wood and is bent in all three dimensions. A master woodworker put it together.

We Have Pipes!

Well, here is what it looks like today...we finally finished all the chestwork. Now we get to put the pipes on.

Front Center: 8' Open Diapason
Front Sides: 8' Open Diapason Bass
Middle (behind Diapason):
8' Dulciana
Rear: 8 Melodia Basses and Trebles (small pipes in center near rackboard.)

There is also a 4' Octave and a TC 4' Flute D'Amour that have not been placed yet. The Melodia and Octave have divided compasses. That is, there are two stops for each set. Pull the "Bass" stop and only the bottom 12 pipes play, pull the "treble" stop and everything above the thirteenth key will play.

Bridging the Gap.....

This is a shot from the back of the instrument looking over the keyboard in the front. The rods coming down from the top of the picture are connected to the pallets in the windchest. At the front of the rocker arms a sticker will be inserted to complete the connection between the key and the pallet.

A Keyboard

This was the keyboard on the ground.

This is the keyboard in its proper place. You can just make out the holes for the drawknobs on the side. Each key will also have a little vertical slider called a sticker at the back to connect it to the pallets.
Sticker: A vertical tracker. Usually used when the distance travelled is less than 6 inches.

An Interesting Aside.......

One the side of the windchest are the slider rockers. These pieces of wood fit into a hole in the slider and change the back and forth motion of the drawknob into side to side motion for the sliders.

Drawknob: The lever on the console that opens or closes a set of slider holes. This is usually done mechanically by means of trackers and squares.

Last of the Chestwork

Howard is using a vacuum set to blow to clean out the channels of the windchest. You can see the slider to the left. The slider moves back and forth to either align or block the holes. If there is air, there is noise. The groves in the windchest are also known as channels. Their purpose is to allow excess wind or (in some OTHER builders instruments) leakage to flow without getting into the wrong pipe. Trust me, that is a bad situation!
On the left Jerome is using the rocker arms to pull the pallet open to let the air and junk out.
In Jerome's picture, the levels of the windchest can be seen. Beneath are the rocker arms, then there is the windchest proper (The area above Jerome's hand is usally sealed) , the pallets, the channels are not visible, then the sliders, toeboards, and rackboards.

Flipped Again!

Things really fly at times...we have the windchest righted and on its frame. We are no ready to look at the top of the unit. It is so pleasing ( and a HUGE relief) to see that this area is in nearly perfect condition also.

This is the heart of the instrument. When the pallet underneath opens up it lets air into the channel. If the slider (black thing) hole lines up with the channel hole, wind flows and the pipe speaks. If it doesn't, well, it doesn't.

Channel: In a tracker windchest, the area immediately above the pallet. All the pipes that could possibly sound on that note are arranged so as to sit on channel holes on one channel.
Channel Hole: The hole beneath the slider hole. If the pallet is open air tries to move through the channel hole.
Slider: A piece of wood or phenolic with holes drilled at specific intervals. All the pipes of a rank are arranged on one particular slider.
Split slider: A slider that has two sections, so that one may be moved without disturbing the other.
Slider Hole: A hole drilled in a slider. It is placed in such a way so that all the holes on a slider will either match their specific channel hole or block it.
Speak: When referring to an organ pipe, to speak is to make a sound (hopefully pleasant)

In the second picture above, I have moved a slider aside to show the channel holes underneath it. The slider holes can either match the channel holes and allow the pipes to speak or block the holes, and thus the air, to prevent the pipes from speaking.

Trackers (not the Geo/Chevy version)

This is a shot of the trackers laying on the floor of the shop after sorting. I feel another definition coming on.......

Tracker: the physical device (usually a long thin piece of wood) that connects the key to the pallet.

An instrument can have many trackers, and it may take several trackers connected by squares to get from the key to the pallet.

Square: A wood or metal device that changes the orientation of the physical energy carried by trackers.

Several are warped or broken. The broken ones that can be repaired will be and the others will be replaced with new wood inthe old style. The warped ones will be straightened by hanging them with a weight at the bottom. Steam is then applied to relax the wood.

That is NOT a cat at the top of the picture, it is the company Vermin Control Unit.

More Pallets

Here are some additional pictures of the Pallet area of the windchest. In the second the top (bottom!) board is attached and the pallet springs are in place. These hold the pallet closed against gravity and the wind. Remember the whole windchest is upside down right now.

Finally Moving on the Project.....

After several weeks of other stuff taking priority, the Stone Church organ is now first on the list. We were very anxious about the condition of the inside of the windchest. (the heart of the organ) one or two problems here and the whole organ would be ruined.

After getting the frame set up and the windchest finally on it. We immediately flipped the windchest upside down and began taking it apart. Imagine our surprise to find the inside looking like this. This looks nearly brand new! (This was built in 1907, folks!) Notice how clean the leather looks...there is no abnormal wear and it is almost as flexible as the day it was installed.

Oops, waxing eloquent and I forget to explain a few things. So here are some organ terms defined:

Windchest: the box that contains the pressurized air (known as "wind") and mechanism for releasing that air to the pipes at the appropriate time. The pipes sit on the top and it is connected to a reservior.
Reservior: a box with a flexible top used to maintain a set air pressure no matter how many pipes are playing at one time.
Pallet: the supports and sealing surface of the device that blocks or allows air to the pipes. Located inside the windchest.
Wind: Pressurized air to make the pipes speak (sound). Usually provided by a blower, but may also be provided by a bellows.
Blower: A motorized fan to provide wind to a reservoir.
Bellows: A hand pumped leather bag used to provide wind to a reservoir.

So there is pressurized air (wind) inside the reservoir and the windchest. The pallet opens and allows air to enter the pipe to let it speak. In the picture above, this entire area is covered and sealed. It is the bottom of the windchest and the pipes would sit on top.

More Pictures!

Well, here is me holding a piece of trim work in the middle of the pile of stuff. Everything down the center of the shop belongs to the stone church organ. Sorry, the big wood pipes at the back afe not part of it....the belong in a theater organ, but that is another blog......

The second picture is me holding some of the trim work. The closer view shows some of the wonderful detail work. The flower in the wood near my left hand is not machine made, it is hand carved into the block of wood......and the dentils onthe other piece are placed individually, by hand I might add.

Pictures!

Well, here are the pictures I promised last time.

The first one shows yours truly holding one of the facade pipes for the instrument. While it might look pretty in gold, in actuality, it is icky. (Technical term, I know) These pipes have actually been repainted three times. There are traces of the original still visible to the naked eye up close. It has not yet been decided how we will treat the facade. (hint hint: we will NEED to know soon!)

The second image shows the keyboard unit upside down on the floor. Actually, that is the only way to store it because it would fall apart if we flipped it over. When it is not installed, it has no way to hold it together..... it depends on the case of the organ to do that.....should be interesting to see how on earth we are going to get that in place without losing something.........

Resurrection!

Hello!

Well, the "Stone Church" organ is out of storage and ready to be reassembled. I thought that I would create this blog so that anyone interested in this process would be able to follow along more easily.

This is the first time that I have done this, so hang with me while I figure all of this out.

I will post some pictures of the instrument in pieces when I can process the photos.