The Best Repairer Is An Accordion Builder

[snavoyosky]

The best repairer is an accordion builder

Are you qualified to build, rebuild, restore, customize, and repair accordions of all types, with journeyman skills?

I started 12 new accordions for you that need to be finished....one almost there needing bellows frames/two bass chord rows placed, key tops placed, reeds installed and treble registers placed, etc. The other 11 have the keyboards made in raw form requiring pattern design, celluloid placement, etc. Bellows are finished. Grills with metal body and black celluloid are ready for you to finish and design according to your taste. Bass section button plates are finished in white with metal guide plate underneath and holding that felt silencer. Reed blocks are made in raw form ready to be fitted exactly to each accordion.

How about celluloid in sheets in black, white, etc.? How about bathing vats to prepare the celluloid for placement on the new accordions, or any accordion for that matter? Have those?

Two grille heaters are available to make grilles, as well as dies for making bass button plates; gauges for making keyboards for piano and chromatic accordions, patterns for keyboard designs...and on it goes.

Journeymen use provinos and tuning benches to do the work properly for it is the most kind way to maintain and preserve those valuable reeds that belong to your customer. Reeds are not made the same way, as you should realize, and any deviation to their design will affect the timbre of their worth. Be the very best craftsman/technician that you can be. Do it well or not at all.

Don't you think its time to have a complete shop ready to do whatever is called of you?

This one even had accordion case hardware and handles. Sordinos (Mutes) of all types and materials, for that 'under the grille' muting.

Notebooks revealing all treble and bass systems for diatonic, piano, chromatic accordions and bandoneon, concertina.....

Part catalogs-past and present to keep your mind stimulated. Various accordion repair, rebuild, build manuals from the past not available today. Many machinery, metal, chemical, wood, and leather text books to guide you. Plans for a new type of a piano keyboard accordion ready to be built. An abundance of raw materials for your build, rebuild, restore, custom, repair needs.....and all those little screws in brass, steel, etc. Special fibble rod oil that won't gum or retain dirt. Shellac of the proper cut. Reed wax rendered with a formula that will anchor your reeds regardless of the hottest outdoor weather. Proper case deodorizer that can be used to remove that moldy smell in any accordion.

The ideal dream shop is one where you just reach and it's there. Your customers won't have to hear you say "I'll have to order it". AND........Home Depot will not be your accordion supply warehouse.

 

[Ffingers]

Paul De Bra - want more stuff to keep you busy?

 

[debra]

Paul De Bra - want more stuff to keep you busy?

No thanks!
The reality is that when doing "general" accordion repairs it's simply impossible to have everything you could possibly need in stock.
Let me show you just one example: a friend of mine has a Morino VI N on which the M reed bank would no longer disengage. (It was always on no matter what register was selected.) I had a quick look under the grille and discovered what's in the photo below.
The "lever" in the picture is simply broken. There are many different similar levers in Carini's catalog, but none that match this one exactly...
For a modern accordion almost all parts can be ordered from Carini (in Castelfidardo) but they carry only limited items from older (long discontinued) models. To be able to fix everything with existing parts you'd need to have a huge stock starting about a century ago. I'm too young and inexperienced to hope to stockpile everything, so I just have a very limited collection of parts, and order new stuff from Carini as needed. Or I ask some friendly older experienced repairers in my area. There is no real competition between repairers here because there is way more demand for accordion repair than there are repairers that can do it.

In general I somewhat disagree with the title of this thread: "The Best Repairer Is An Accordion Builder".
I would say that "The Best Accordion Builder is a Repairer". It takes a repairer to know how to build an accordion that is less difficult to repair than what we currently have on the market. An accordion repairer would not make it almost impossible to reach the hook or screws that hold the bass belt in place for instance. On some accordions quite a bit of bass mechanism disassembly is needed just to be able to replace a worn bass belt. And an accordion repairer would never glue reed blocks in place or make button accordions with the buttons glued on instead of using the screw-in type...

 

[snavoyosky]

No thanks!
The reality is that when doing "general" accordion repairs it's simply impossible to have everything you could possibly need in stock.
Let me show you just one example: a friend of mine has a Morino VI N on which the M reed bank would no longer disengage. (It was always on no matter what register was selected.) I had a quick look under the grille and discovered what's in the photo below.
The "lever" in the picture is simply broken. There are many different similar levers in Carini's catalog, but none that match this one exactly...
For a modern accordion almost all parts can be ordered from Carini (in Castelfidardo) but they carry only limited items from older (long discontinued) models. To be able to fix everything with existing parts you'd need to have a huge stock starting about a century ago. I'm too young and inexperienced to hope to stockpile everything, so I just have a very limited collection of parts, and order new stuff from Carini as needed. Or I ask some friendly older experienced repairers in my area. There is no real competition between repairers here because there is way more demand for accordion repair than there are repairers that can do it.

In general I somewhat disagree with the title of this thread: "The Best Repairer Is An Accordion Builder".
I would say that "The Best Accordion Builder is a Repairer". It takes a repairer to know how to build an accordion that is less difficult to repair than what we currently have on the market. An accordion repairer would not make it almost impossible to reach the hook or screws that hold the bass belt in place for instance. On some accordions quite a bit of bass mechanism disassembly is needed just to be able to replace a worn bass belt. And an accordion repairer would never glue reed blocks in place or make button accordions with the buttons glued on instead of using the screw-in type...

Fascinating comeback. You just validated my thread title. The point here is that upon receiving this broken instrument, your remedy was to review a parts catalog.....and then believing it impossible to stock all these parts...believing that I had done this which is not true. My answer however is this........a broken part? Then make a new one.

 

[jozz]

Then make a new one.

'dream shop' = mill, lathe, CNC - done (and a couple of shelves of metal and wood stock)
maybe even CNC alone is enough?

 

[debra]

Fascinating comeback. You just validated my thread title. The point here is that upon receiving this broken instrument, your remedy was to review a parts catalog.....and then believing it impossible to stock all these parts...believing that I had done this which is not true. My answer however is this........a broken part? Then make a new one.

I have already come to the conclusion that if none of our friendly colleagues happen to have this part then making a new part from scratch is indeed the solution. Sadly I do not have Jozz's dream shop to do it...

 

[boxplayer4000]

Paul: Totally agree. Accordions, as well as lots of other things, are not put together with an eventual repair in mind. Glued parts, for instance, are simply another way of cutting costs.
The broken part on your Morino V1N is probably made up of two parts and the broken part appears to be riveted over the part we can't see.
Two approaches come to mind:
Hohner have lots of spares; have you tried them? They may need to view the two parts to make a comparison.
The broken part is probably repairable without going the whole hog of making a completely new part.
A passing thought is that the coupler slider might need some attention as it may be that something has stiffened up its action and caused an extra load on the part which has broken.

 

[snavoyosky]

'dream shop' = mill, lathe, CNC - done (and a couple of shelves of metal and wood stock)
maybe even CNC alone is enough?

All part of being a professional technician.....having a shop to do the proper workmanship. Yes, it takes more than hanging a shingle and calling ones self a journeyman. Keep in mind some of those are not necessary when you know how to approach the problem otherwise.

 

[snavoyosky]

I have already come to the conclusion that if none of our friendly colleagues happen to have this part then making a new part from scratch is indeed the solution. Sadly I do not have Jozz's dream shop to do it...

But maybe he does sub-contractor work you could hire him to do. Or just send your friend to him to do.

 

[Alan Sharkis]

Play nice, children

 

[snavoyosky]

Play nice, children

Fret not.
Just getting ready to play 'tag' and 'ring around the nosy'

 

[Wheezer]

'dream shop' = mill, lathe, CNC - done (and a couple of shelves of metal and wood stock)
maybe even CNC alone is enough?

Do you think that 3D printers can be leveraged for fabricating obsolete parts?

 

[debra]

This thread coming back alive reminded me that I didn't post this here:


I didn't make this new part. A friend of another friendly repairer made it.

 

[boxplayer4000]

It's a very simple part. It has been mentioned before to those who are not inclined to have a go themselves that many small, finicky parts such as this are bread and butter to lots of hobby model engineers. There's lots of them around with their lathes and milling machines, making things that go up and down, round and round and give off steam.

 

[debra]

It's a very simple part. It has been mentioned before to those who are not inclined to have a go themselves that many small, finicky parts such as this are bread and butter to lots of hobby model engineers. There's lots of them around with their lathes and milling machines, making things that go up and down, round and round and give off steam.

I forget exactly how it was, but the silvery metal piece you see is not the difficulty. (I could have made that myself easily.) It is how the copper cilinder is attached to the steel (or aluminium) plate that's the difficulty. These two form "one piece" and I haven't checked how the new part is attached, but it wasn't a screw-in type connection in the old part.
In any case I didn't look at the problem very carefully to begin with. What I do (for friends only) is everything that's needed before and then during tuning. I am an accordion tuner, not someone who repairs everything. There are some people I can refer friends to, who repair everything and who can essentially make a whole accordion from scratch if needed. I only do the minor stuff, and therefore I also cannot afford to invest in things like CNC machines, complex woodworking tools, welding, etc. I try to stick to cleaning, sealing, ensuring reed blocks are firmly in place, replacing valves where needed, and then tuning. I have done the odd thing like fixing an accordion that fell down from a table. I now know I can do it, but it will never be a hobby of mine.

 

[Ventura]

necessity still being the Mother of course..

after WW2 we saw re-emerging accordion builders making accordions
with what they had available (pot metal.. mixed plastic.. cellulose)
not much left in the way of Wood or the high quality Metal tooling
and machines that had been confiscated by the Germans to make Bombs

so they had to make do

it is not impossible to fix an oddball up, might even be amazing
when you find a late 40's Dallape with pre-war Reeds

(other Italians hid their Wine and their Daughters.. Dallape hid their reeds..)

dedication !

but for the items that would need original raw material.. like those waterfall keys..
i just don't see how it would be practical to even make new parts for a broken
one as there is no-way to match the look or feel affordably without similar raw stock
to work from (and no 2 waterfall keys are alike, so no borrowing from another junker..

you can bend an aluminum part a bit but if you try to bend Pot metal it just breaks !

and some of the parts that must have taken DAYS to hand file and smooth down
from some piece of scrap metal.. craft dedication

the time spent to build an accordion in the late 40's must have been
10 times what it had been before the war

but yes it is nice to have a Hobbyshop Engineer type friend
(or a Dentist) who can do amazing detailed things in miniature
with their tools and materials

 

[boxplayer4000]

I think the copper cylinder part referred to is in fact brass and from memory riveted to the metal crank. The crank is certainly not aluminium but a much stronger alloy (probably of steel).
Sadly a lot of traditional skills are disappearing as we live in a throw-away society. A popular TV programme here in the UK is called 'The Repair Shop'. People with heirlooms are invited to hand them in for restoration and various experts attend to everything from a guitar, oil painting, ceramics, wooden toys, clocks/watches, furniture, leather items etc. etc. It's interesting to see an expert in action. A two-voice piano accordion which had seen service in 1930's and wartime London was restored by a repair man who contributes to this site but his work was over-shadowed somewhat by a resident expert in plastics who was able to re-create the aged effect of the piano keys (if my memory serves me right).
The 'experts' exist but are probably becoming fewer and fewer.

 

[debra]

I think the copper cylinder part referred to is in fact brass and from memory riveted to the metal crank. The crank is certainly not aluminium but a much stronger alloy (probably of steel).
Sadly a lot of traditional skills are disappearing as we live in a throw-away society. A popular TV programme here in the UK is called 'The Repair Shop'. People with heirlooms are invited to hand them in for restoration and various experts attend to everything from a guitar, oil painting, ceramics, wooden toys, clocks/watches, furniture, leather items etc. etc. It's interesting to see an expert in action. A two-voice piano accordion which had seen service in 1930's and wartime London was restored by a repair man who contributes to this site but his work was over-shadowed somewhat by a resident expert in plastics who was able to re-create the aged effect of the piano keys (if my memory serves me right).
The 'experts' exist but are probably becoming fewer and fewer.

Yeah I have seen that episode. Incredible what they are able to do, but the amount of work must be tremendous. Economically the work done on this show makes no sense. But when you have a family heirloom you are greatly emotionally attached to then money is of no importance. The show is all about helping people with such heirlooms and it makes for very interesting TV as well.

 

[jozz]

Do you think that 3D printers can be leveraged for fabricating obsolete parts?

not sure

I guess the shoes for pallets you could 3d print - but those are still readily available or easily made out of wood

I cannot find a lot of parts in my Bugari that I could be able to print

 

[debra]

not sure

I guess the shoes for pallets you could 3d print - but those are still readily available or easily made out of wood

I cannot find a lot of parts in my Bugari that I could be able to print

What I have printed are
1) different types of accordion feet (they tend to break or wear out),
2) bridges (between accordion feet, to make the room for your hand to move under the bass belt more uniform (accordion makers used to supply them with convertor accordions but appear to no longer do so),
3) chin switches,
4) chin switch protectors (that prevent the chin switches from being pressed accidentally during transport, and these too are supplied with some accordions but with most they don't).
Parts that are originally metal I have never replicated in plastic (the only material I can print) because it lacks strength.
Parts that are of cosmetic importance (as well as structural), like register switches, require too fine detail for me to print a believable replacement. Typically they have trouble with something underneath the switch that breaks, and I repair that with celluloid.