deadly foam in the manuals?

[pspees]

My C3 has the foam and not the felt dust protection strips in the manual housing. I've read that it can be really bad(nightmare status). No problems yet. Should I be worried? Should I even do anything?

[tonewheel1966]

Re: deadly foam in the manuals?



I take it you read this on the retrokeys site? A while back Hammondzone had a long thread regarding this. Climate and humidity, organs history all came into it. If your organ had a church back ground for example not being roaded the chances are that the foam is still intact. It is said that knocked about organs are more likely to have the foam detached. Again this is something that is individual in each case.</P>


Dave</P>

[Dave S.]

Re: deadly foam in the manuals?



Welcome to thenightmare topicof Hammond organs. The foam is definitely a messy affliction. The organs built in the 1970's will usually suffer the worst, as they had a really thick foam strip that's alwaystight against the wiring looms, unlike the earlier ones. Me being here in Florida, even the nicely keptchurch organsaren't always immunebecause the a/c's are shut off during the week, heat &amp; humidity rises,sometimes that'sall that foamneeds to do it'sdamage. The telltale sign is usually a missing pitch that seems isolated, it'll work everywhere else except (usually) only one note of only one drawbar. Or sometimes it'sa cipher. It's extremely labor-intensive to get into. Sometimes more damage can be done by attempting repair, usually when the chassis pans are shifted/lifted off more of the nylese wires snap. Geez i'm sounding like a doomsayer here!</P>


I've also seen organs of the same vintage come from friendlier climates with no such trouble, so it's a crapshoot, again depending on the instrument's treatment and climate exposure. What year is yours? The worst ones i've seen have always been built in the 70's.</P>

[pspees]

Re: deadly foam in the manuals?

well it's a c3 from about 1964 and I live in southern california so humidity is not a problem. I wonder how common the problem is around here?

[pspees]

Re: deadly foam in the manuals?

you know...they say "it's labor intensive" and "just leave it to someone who knows what they're doing" but I say I'm taking that **** out myself ASAP. Any advice...because I'm about to embark on a journey into the darkest depths of my hammond. I've done it before and I'll do it again.(actually I love dismantling hammonds; I added foldback to an L111 back in highschool and I would imagine that It's a fairly similar process to extract the infamous goo).

[micximus]

Re: deadly foam in the manuals?



There are a couple of guys on the hammondzone group that have done this. I'd go there and lookup their stories.</P>


I don't think it's accurate to say there's anything like a concensus on this topic, but on the balance, those in the know say if you don't have any problems, don't mess with it. The idea is, your organ is close to 40 years old. If it's not had a problem yet, chances are pretty good it's not going to, so why risk screwing it up. I've got to say I'd personally be inclined to be more proactive than that, but then again, that's the advice of guys who know a heck of a lot more than I do.</P>

[Tim Rinkerman]

Re: deadly foam in the manuals?

As my mom used to say, if it isn't broken, don't fix it.....temperature has more effect on the foam than anything. Higher temperatures will cause the foam to revert back to a goo quicker than humidity. I have not had to deal with it in my own organs, however I have seen what others have gone through to remove it. It seems like people take their chances pulling and scraping it off, and several others have painstakingly rewired the whole manuals....I would like to experiment with dissolving the foam if anyone can send me a piece of the foam and a sample of the manual wire.. If I can find a suitable solvent that will melt the foam but not soften the lacquer or enamel that insulates the wire, I think you could suspend the manual on its backin a shallow pan of solvent till all the foam is gone. Sounds too easy, but sometimes I get lucky! Happy New Year all!!