September 12, 2018: PipeMare update

Things are moving a bit slow these days. Some profound thought about the PipeMare cupboard swell has resulted in a few design changes. The rather thin and flimsy backside will be replaced by heavy particle board, the edges of the front door will be sealed better and the swell panels will be reinforced to achieve better thickness/weight and a better seal. All this to make the effect of the swell as powerful as possible. With thin walls and bad seals, the swell effect would be almost unnoticable.

The PipeMare Flute windchest has also undergone some design changes. We are now working on constructing the windchest with built-in expansion chambers for the valves to reduce the stuttering onset or attack of sound, that might be the result of too short a pathway from valve to pipe. This is especially relevant here, as we have reduced the pipe feet greatly by removing their original long lead feet.

Here are some preliminary design sketches:

Windchest design proposal for flutes

Note that the flute windchest will be placed at the top of the inside of the cupboard, and the flute pipes are hanging upside down. That’s why the exhausts are pointing downwards.

Flute windchest with expansion chambers – top view

The sketches are not to scale, and may be subject to many changes in the time to come. But having ignored the value of expansion chambers so far, we are very keen on using them at last, because they should be part of any respectable organ, and we do so desire respect.

Next, I expect we’ll have to build a tracker action pallet/slider chest…

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