Subject: Re: [Residence Organs] Dimensions of Windchests From: "VEAGUE" <dutchorgan@svs.net <mailto:dutchorgan@svs.net>> Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2001 08:13:33 -0500 I service a one manual tracker with 8 ranks on it, and the chest is about = 3' deep x 5' wide. The stopped 16' bourdons sit on offsets at either side of the main chest -all winded off the rather large reservoir underneath. Another one-manual tracker I know of has 3 ranks on the 2 1/2' deep chest and 6' wide with pumps and reservoir underneath. This instrument has no = 16' basses (only 8'), and the 12 basses are divided and mounted on either side of the manual chest with rollers spaning either side to the basses for low octave manual playing. In my travels, I've seen manual chest ranks placed close behind each = other. Air-tight channeling and long key pallets under each channel allow for enough air to feed all ranks. With my roll-playing street organ, the main chest is 18" deep x 5' long = and holds 114 pipes. The 8' basses are on an offset behind the main chest. Compactness is nice (and optimal at times) but allow enough room for = tuning and servicing. Rick

Subject: Re: Dimensions of Windchests From: "Larry Chace" <RLC1@etnainstruments.com <mailto:RLC1@etnainstruments.com>> Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2001 15:06:58 -0500 Welcome to Keith Zimmerman, who had previous posted to PIPRG-L about the general topic of residence organs. The Oberlinger organs are probably able to be so compact due to their avoidance of "too many" large-scaled registers and the sharing of bass pipes. It is certainly possible to build *very* compact slider chests, including ones that are laid out in "keyboard scale". That of course implies that the bass (and tenor) pipes have to be offset or otherwise moved out of the way. For electric action chests, perhaps more space is needed, but there is = also more flexibility in that different ranks can be accomondated in different fashions. For my own project, I've worked out a standardized windchest layout that attempts to save space while also providing some efficiency in terms of exchanging sets of pipes. The chest measures 9" wide and 40" long and hold notes 18-73 of a single rank. For an 8' set, this is Tenor F up to the top of the 4' extension; the design assumes that the rank is no larger than 46 scale at 8' CC (17th halving, etc.). Only the bottom two pipes extend slightly beyond the = edges of the chest, perhaps 3/4" at the end. The pipes are arranged chromatically, in a "slalom" fashion: g#1 e2 c3 c#1 a1 f2 G c1 g1 d#2 b2 F# d1 a#1 f#2 .... and so on G# B f#1 d2 a#2 F d#1 b1 g2 A A# f1 c#2 a2 e c2 g#2 (If you aren't using a mono-spaced fixed font, then that diagram was perhaps rather strange-looking!) This type of chest would be tuned from the treble end and several of them could be placed side-by-side, perhaps on individual "boxes" and perhaps grouped onto a single windbox. The note spaceing in the treble is determined by the size of the "601" valve units. The choice of Tenor F as the largest pipe was dicated by the available ceiling height and the = desire to be able to get at the bottom of the chest for maintanence work; an open Tenor F pipe is the tallest that would fit. Larry Chace

Subject: Thin wind chests From: "Larry Chace" <RLC1@etnainstruments.com <mailto:RLC1@etnainstruments.com>> Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2001 15:08:46 -0500 Many congrats to Dave Whitmore (and Jane!) on your significant progress! Regarding thin chests, I assume Dave meant one that sits on the floor and holds pipes that are tall enough that there is little clearance to the ceiling. Let's assume that the pipes are mitered (as Dave mentioned), so that there is no problem with the pipe coming within a very small distance of the ceiling. (For open non-mitered pipes, you need to provide some clearance so that the ceiling doesn't act like a tuning shade!) One approach to a very thin chest is to built it upside-down, with the toeboard (no longer the "top" board!) extending behind the chest body sufficiently that the pipes can fit into toeholes bored into its top surface. That board should be thick enough that it can have channels running from where the valves are mounted within the chest body, these channels connecting with the actual toe holes. A laminated toeboard might work well and might be a bit thinner. The chest body will be in front of the pipe feet, where it would not interfere with the speach. I believe that Frank Vanaman in Baltimore has done something like this for his 16' Basson, and he has photos on his web page (the URL to which I have = cleverly misplaced!). Larry Chace