Moller cipher. Please help!

[AdmiralHussey]

Good evening!

Long story short, I have been playing a local organ built using Moller and other random ranks. It was installed in the 60s and has barely been taken care of. The church can’t afford ANY work that needs to be done, so I have done what I can to bring some of the stops back online and sounding somewhat in tune. When I started, half of the organ was dead. I’ve managed to repair most of the leaks and have tuned the really bad stops. In celebration of the organ being playable once again, I was asked to do a traditional service on Christmas Day. I happily agreed as much of the congregation had never even heard the organ.

So here’s my problem. Today when I was there practicing, I got a cipher on the Bombarde. This has happened before, and normally if I power cycle the organ, the problem stops. This time it didn’t. To stop the eternal honk, I carefully unseated the pipe, but the wind was still rushing through the hole. I powered down the organ and waited a bit. When I turned it back on, The rushing wind was gone. I went back into the choir chamber and was checking underneath to see if maybe the rod on the bottom of the magnet board was stuck. It wasn’t. If the organ is powered down, the rod moves up and down easily. Once it’s powered up, the rod automatically pulls up. Could this be a failure of the electromagnet, or do I have bigger problems on my hands? I would really like to be able to use that stop on Christmas. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[johnroper100]

One thing to check is the magnet armature. That is the little metal and paper disk inside of the magnet. Open the magnet, remove the armature (don’t loose it) and blow any possible dust out of the magnet. Then return the armature making sure it goes back facing the same direction that it came out (usually paper side facing out).

[AdmiralHussey]

I will give that a shot tonight when I go over to work on it. Thank you!

[Coenraads]

Or just silence that one pipe. With a large flue pipe stuffing a tee shirt into the mouth usually does the trick. With a reed you could just move the tuning wire down but that is not recommended since it could slide off the end the shallot. Better to lift the pipe slightly and insert a piece of paper under the toe but be careful. If it is a tall pipe and it comes loose from the rack it could start to tip and there is no worse feeling than having such a pipe start to fall over. An assistant is recommended.

[AdmiralHussey]

I have already removed the offending pipe. The problem is, that it is a pipe that I actually need to use. It is a D in the 8ft rank of the Bombarde. If I use the stop, it will be very noticeable when I tap that pedal.

[Coenraads]

Might it be possible to get creative here? If the pipe in question sits on an offset chest, i.e., it has its own magnet, could you swap it with a neighbouring pipe C# or D#, whichever one you don't need? Then connect a jumper wire from the D magnet to the C# or D# magnet.

I'm not sure if this might feed back through the switching system, so if it does, an isolating diode wired in series might squelch that.
You'll have to be careful not to play C# or D# when that stop is drawn.
Worth a try?

[AdmiralHussey]

That's a clever idea. I did not think of that. If I can figure out if it's an electromagnet issue, I may steal one from the dead ranks and swap it out. Either that or take one from the highest note of the Fifteenth. I'll never use it, so I don't think it will be missed. I won't have to worry about bumping the wrong note. Ultimately, I hope that a renewed interest in the organ will drive some funds to restore her to her former glory. Thank you for the suggestions!