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Using string for the movement of stops, keys, couplers etc.
Hello all,
I am quite new to the organ world and am wanting to dabble in building one myself, a small piece with only 3 or so stops (and ranks). I was thinking of perhaps making one rank from wood (perhaps a stopped diapason?) from wood and the others from paper using the method detailed by mark wicks http://www.savetheorgan.org/kbase/or...r_amateurs.pdf here, as i am relatively inexperienced in woodworking in general, while still having done some work at school. However, I also had the idea of using string or strong cord for the purpose of carrying the movement from the keys and stop knobs etc to the wind chest and stop boards. This seemed to me to be a simple way of avoiding the fiddly work of making all of the mechanisms to do this out of beams, rollers and wire etc, instead being able to run a length of cord from the key to the wind chest through a series of pulleys and tie it at each end.
Is there a specific reason that this is not already done? It seems quite likely that it was not done when building say a large church organ because the cord would be liable to stretch or be eaten at by mice and rats, thereby meaning that the organ would have to be serviced much more often than practical. None of these reasons really apply to me, however, as I am not looking for my organ to last for hundreds of years, and now with stronger nylon threads and suchlike, as well as me being available to maintain it almost constantly, I do not see any particular reason which would not let me use this as my mechanism for stop action etc.
Please correct me if i have made any glaring errors, and if you have any suggestions or feedback on any of the rest of the organ detailed in the above link, please feel free to reply with that as well. I am thinking of following the design for wind-chest and the rest of the organ quite closely from that link and only changing the mechanisms to cord-based.
Yours,
Rinstboss
I am quite new to the organ world and am wanting to dabble in building one myself, a small piece with only 3 or so stops (and ranks). I was thinking of perhaps making one rank from wood (perhaps a stopped diapason?) from wood and the others from paper using the method detailed by mark wicks http://www.savetheorgan.org/kbase/or...r_amateurs.pdf here, as i am relatively inexperienced in woodworking in general, while still having done some work at school. However, I also had the idea of using string or strong cord for the purpose of carrying the movement from the keys and stop knobs etc to the wind chest and stop boards. This seemed to me to be a simple way of avoiding the fiddly work of making all of the mechanisms to do this out of beams, rollers and wire etc, instead being able to run a length of cord from the key to the wind chest through a series of pulleys and tie it at each end.
Is there a specific reason that this is not already done? It seems quite likely that it was not done when building say a large church organ because the cord would be liable to stretch or be eaten at by mice and rats, thereby meaning that the organ would have to be serviced much more often than practical. None of these reasons really apply to me, however, as I am not looking for my organ to last for hundreds of years, and now with stronger nylon threads and suchlike, as well as me being available to maintain it almost constantly, I do not see any particular reason which would not let me use this as my mechanism for stop action etc.
Please correct me if i have made any glaring errors, and if you have any suggestions or feedback on any of the rest of the organ detailed in the above link, please feel free to reply with that as well. I am thinking of following the design for wind-chest and the rest of the organ quite closely from that link and only changing the mechanisms to cord-based.
Yours,
Rinstboss
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