Best way of repair for fallboard damage Hammond C3

[Dote]

Dear Board,

I have this Hammond C3, which unfortunately has some damage to the fallboard. There is a chunk of wood missing from the part of the fallboard that covers the lower manual (see attached pics).

Wonder if some member of the board has any experience in fixing this and cn give advice.

One way would be to pull off the whole strip of wood and replace that with a custom made new piece of wood. The other possibilty would be to do a partial fix, cutting of (and routing out) the damaged part and then glueing in just a part of a new strip. There is another crack on the existing wood further down to the preset keys, but that could be glued back on easily.

Another question: when did Hammond start to use the continuous piano hinge? This should give much better protection for these kinds of cracks and might also be a possibility to make a more eays fix.

Thanks in advance for any help on this.

I am in Europe, so ordering replacement wood strips from the US or a replacement fallboard would not really be an option.

Dote

[Wes]

Do you know any experienced cabinet makers? They could fix this for you. I can't really tell from here what I'd do. Hard from pictures.

[Bobmann]

I am afraid that replacing that piece of wood may be your only option. I would take the entire thing to a cabinet maker to see what they can do.
Hammond used hyde glue that gets brittle over time, and one should be able to remove the old piece without too much damage to the rest of the fallboard.
If someone attempted a fix and used some other glue, then all bets are off.

To my knowledge, none of the C fallboards had a continuous hinge here. I have no other evidence other than I have never seen anything other than the smaller hinges.

Bob

[JoeyB3]

Another question: when did Hammond start to use the continuous piano hinge? This should give much better protection for these kinds of cracks and might also be a possibility to make a more easy fix.

The question is more like, "when did Hammond END using the continuous piano hinge?"
My Concert Model E has a continuous hinge at this spot. Not sure if the earlier RT models did as well...but I do believe the RT-3 had the smaller hinges like the C series.

[Wes]

I think my '48 Northern CV cab has a continuous hinge there as well.

[Bobmann]

Very interesting.

Just be sure that we are talking about the same hinge...the C fall board is hinged in 2 places; where the fallboard meets the cabinet top, and where the bottom section of the fallboard meets the top part of the fallboard.
The upper hinge is continuous, the lower (that is hidden unless one lifts the lower part when the fallboard is open) was a series of smaller hinges in all C2, C3 and CV cases that I have seen.
I do not remember about the RT, and I would guess that they were the same as the Concert E as those are both longer cabinets.

I have also seen more CVs than I can count...all were this way with the continuous on top and several hinges on bottom.
The only CV that I have a photo of that shows both hinges is Ser 11403 which makes it about a 1945 model, according to the TWG age list.

It would be really informative if anyone that has an older CV or Model D or RT could verify. Maybe we could determine when a change was made if nothing other than to satisfy our curiosity.


Regards...Bob

[Wes]

Pretty sure mine is solid both places. Will check.

Recall my organs and OPs organ have foreign-built cabinets. Subtle differences may exist.

[Tonewheel]

Hi Dote,

I agree with the others that your best bet is a cabinet maker. You've lost some veneer on the sides. Here is what I think they would do:

1. Get in an adequate amount of cherry veneer
2. If the damage to the larger fallboard section is angled, the cabinet maker can cut off the remainder straight.
3. He can remove the veneer in the affected areas.
4. He can cut a replacement piece (could be plywood) and plane it to the correct thickness
5. He can join the new piece to the original cut section and join with biscuits or dowel and glue.
6. A damaged edge (not the sides, because they can be veneered) may require a strip of solid wood that can be routed to match the original edge.
7. Veneer can be now glued to the appropriate areas, including the exposed side portions.
8. This is the tricky part: Matching the stain. Then finishing with poly.
9. Re-attach the hardware.

This sounds complex, but to a cabinet maker, especially the European crew, this would be simple and save you grief and money.

I think that it would be cheaper than ordering a replacement from the US (they have B3 wallboards for $450 plus shipping, and even then you will need to stain and reinstall the hardware). Doubt you can find a C3 fallboard.

Good luck with the repair.

Dave

[JoeyB3]

Very interesting.

Just be sure that we are talking about the same hinge...
I do not remember about the RT, and I would guess that they were the same as the Concert E as those are both longer cabinets.

Regards...Bob

Bob,
If you remember, when you gave me the CME, you also threw in a complete fallboard assembly from an RT-2 that was in much better condition than what was on the E...in case I wanted to swap it out.

The reason I did NOT swap it out was because the RT-2 fallboard had the small hinges on it in the place you describe (as opposed to the original, continuous hinge) and I did not want to lose the period correctness when restoring the E.

Thanks again for donating that organ to me. It has provided me and my son, Matt with many proud hours of music over the last 3 years...with many more to come!!

[Dote]

Dear All,

thank you for your suggestions. I think it really would be best to take it to a cabinet maker as suggested by Wes and Tonewheel.

Regarding the continous piano hinge:

I clearly remember that I did see pics on the internet (ebay auction) showing C3s where the fallboard for the lower manual also had a continous piano hinge. I need to search these pics and will post them. But maybe what I saw was just a repaired C3? I seem to remember seeing at least two C3s like this.

Again thank you for your help and feedback!

Dote