Vintage Synth Repair

>
> > I am at his website and looking for the reference to Hammond
> > Oil....
>
>Would that be on this page here:
>
><http://www.sl-prokeys.com/prokeys/generator.htm>http://www.sl-prokeys.com/prokeys/generator.htm


Yes. but since for better or for worse, i think of the Hammond as if 
it were a kind of musical pre 1967 Volkswagen bus, on which I have 
done MUCH work, the notion of purging the oil seems OK to me, and the 
way we do this with a vw is to buy tons of cheap oil, change the oil, 
run the motor for a minute, CHANGE the oil again, and repeat this 
process until only clean oil comes out. we use the same viscosity, 
not something lighter, so as to cushion the engine against excessive 
wear from all the suspended CRAP in the oil coming into intimate 
contact with the metal. It has been ages since I had to do this, 
because i keep my cars very clean inside and out.

>?
>
>I can see the point of what he's saying there up to an extent, but no way
>would I believe that dirt particles are going to get carried along what he
>calls wicks and into the bearings. What I have found to have happened, on
>some occasions, is that the old oil, particularly in units that aren't
>played much, tends to let its lighter fractions evaporate and what's left
>_is_ kinda gummy.


yes, the car folks call this varnish, which it really is not, but i 
get the picture....

>  I did a service call some years ago,
>  I found that I could turn the shaft of the
>generator by hand, with some effort. So I added some oil, and turned it,
>and added some more, and turned it, and continued this way for a while,
>and eventually it got to the point where the gummy residue was sufficiently
>duluted by fresh oil that I was able to hit the switch and it'd start and run
>normally.


Yes, this is like the purge oil engine cleaning....


>I notice too that he seems to not mention what he's using there.


I never asked. I know that the oil for Omega watches at one time was 
exceedingly expensive per ounce, like Bulgarian Attar of Roses (the 
active ingredient in Joy Perfume) but there are many lightweight oils 
around, and i never asked what oil he was using. because i had not 
gotten that far, since i own my Hammonds for only about three 
weeks.  And was starting from ground zero and did not want to get 
anyone so angry at me that i felt I could never speak again to the 
person without being blinded by fury! perhaps you know what i mean.....


> > in the same general vicinity he talks about a material used in
> > sealing the machinery in later Hammonds, which crumbles with time and
> > makes a terrible mess, and I sure hope I do not encounter this stuff
> > when I get into opening my T 211-1 to remove its Leslie and take it
> > to the fixit guy.
>
>Would that be this page here:
>
><http://www.sl-prokeys.com/prokeys/manual.htm>http://www.sl-prokeys.com/prokeys/manual.htm


Yes. I found this terrifying since i have not done a motor tear down 
for 12 years, a tiny Fiat Multipla it was, and i wound up cleaning it 
on the kitchen counter with toothbrushes...


>?
>
>I encountered some of that deteriorated foam while working on my car 
>recently,
>in the dashboard!


OH NO! THAT STUFF! i have an ancient truck, MUNGO THE TRUCK OF DEATH 
whose dash is backed up by this material and I believe Mungo was born 
in the same year as my T-211-1 hammond! like breadcrumbs from HELL!

>I've also seen it in other places as well. That bit about
>the broken resistance wire is a nasty problem, and I don't like having to
>deal with that, but weeks? Nah. I had a spinet once that belonged to
>a "cat lady" that suffered some damage in that area. It wasn't gonna take me
>_weeks_ to trace through. That was a pretty nasty situation too.


I was a cat lady for a while, but whereas I did not have free for all 
cat piss in the house, I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN. I knew other cat people, 
(my eyes water from the memory of the aromas) and cat pee given 
enough time, will cause almost anything to rot, i believe)


> > 
> <http://www.sl-prokeys.com/prokeys/pro.htm>http://www.sl-prokeys.com/prokeys/pro.htm
> >
> > this is where you start to look around, the website is huge, and you
> > probably already know who he is, right?
>
>Nope, never heard of the guy. But that's no surprise. I worked on organs a
>bunch, starting in 1975 and stopping maybe 10-12 years later, when things
>had tapered off pretty much. But there are an awful lot of people out there
>who deal with this stuff, no surprise that I've never heard of him.


Somehow I think if I know somebody EVERYBODY else knows them, and 
often it is true because the world is a small place.


>So what's the problem with the Leslie?


It came to me having been turned off for  reasons unknown  and the 
last person who worked on it years ago said he does not remember WHY 
he turned it off. he referred me to a nearby fixit lad, who said 
sure, take the leslie OUT and bring it in. he also said they are not 
making them any more so the parts are you know, impossible to find, 
but as an ancient car fixit woman, I take this as a challenge since i 
have stockpiled many parts for cars which are no longer made, most of 
which i found in under  seven minutes. But I know my way around 
certain car parts and NOTHING about Hammond organ parts. I do know 
that i must have the leslie or another leslie which FUNCTIONS because 
i cannot bear to have something which has non-functioning parts. I 
can play the thing without the Leslie, but, knowing that it is there 
and not working is eating a hole in my head.

I also have a spinet, the cheap one with woodgrain formica on it, and 
as much as I loathe woodgrain formica, this is a pleasing instrument 
to me.  model 136124  apparently the last three letters tell us this 
is the grain of the fake wood.  it is not 136J24 which at first was 
very confusing to me when I was trying to get its manual book...

i have almost no keyboard experience, i am a classic guitarist in my 
heart, and had a pianist mother. this is my first foray into keyboards.
But i am a born natural fixer of things....and have restored things 
other than cars and musical instruments professionally.

another story.

hermine