From: Doug L. Bullock <d.l.bullock@...>
Subject: Re: [wurlitzer105b] Re-leathering Pipe Stoppers (Wurl 105)
To: wurlitzer105b@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, July 5, 2009, 10:19 AM

Yes the bottom is covered to be more airtight.  If a wooden stopper cracks it can become a leak and then the pipe plays a harmonic instead of the fundamental pitch.

Some stoppers have strips of leather glued all around the edges while others have one piece that covers all.  Sometimes the edges also have a strip of felt all around the stopper under the leather.  This furnishes some "cush" for the leather to compress while in place.   In new pipes they often attach sponge silicone or neoprene around the stopper instead of leather.  In older days some companies dadoed out the edges of the stopper and inserted blocks of cork, however, years later I usually have to add leather around those as cork shrinks over the years and the stoppers leak.

Find leather that is close to the same consistency of the original and also thickness should be similar.    At this age you need to do the whole set.  You must check the tightness of the new stopper in the pipe.  It must be tight but not too tight.  Not tight enough and the stopper moves after you tune it and pitch goes up.  Too tight and the pipe splits open down the side.

Use Johnson's Baby Powder to lubricate the stoppers as you put them in.  Not graphite or grease or oil.  Baby Powder is slicker than graphite.   Use only Johnson's others are not slick they are talc.

If you find that bane of the pipemakers existence--tallow-- you must scrape all that out of the pipe and do your best to degrease.  Tallow is a lard/petroleum jelly/paraffin mixture made up by different tuners  so they could glop up the stoppers and get them to seal.  It is a disaster when you try to releather the stoppers, though.

If you want to, send me 3-4 of your pipes, I can make a video of releathering for this group so you can do the rest of them.
Doing a whole set is not that big of a job, either...unless you are doing a whole 97-pipe 16-foot rank of Tibias. LOL

Doug L. Bullock
http://thepianoworld.com



Max K. Huff wrote:

Are there special techniques for re-leathering pipe-stoppers? Some of mine are very loose. They used .025 leather and after almost 80 years, it's pretty well dried out. They appear to be cut from a single piece with a joint at each corner. I'm having trouble making corners fit well. Is there a reason the bottom is also covered? Max
Houston, TX
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