Practical Organ Building

by W. E. Dickson

The tools required are chiefly those which are common to every joiner's shop; notably and of first importance the three planes, the jack, the jointer or trying plane, and the little smoothing plane. This last may now be bought in a very handy form, entirely of iron, and fitted with a clever adjustment by which the cutter can be set to any degree of fineness. This little plane (an American invention) is invaluable for many purposes involving extreme neatness and accuracy. The planes must at all times be kept in first-rate order, and any defect which makes its appearance must be instantly rectified by a careful use of the oil stone. The latter, let us mention by the way, as we may have youthful and inexperienced readers, should be levelled occasionally by being rubbed on a flat slab with sand and water. The plane is emphatically the tool of the organ-builder, and no pains should be considered too great to be bestowed on the care of these beautiful tools, or on the attainment of dexterity in the use of them.

The usual saws, the ripping saw, the panel saw, the dovetail, the key-hole or pad saw, will be required; and we may take this opportunity of remarking that as the organ-builder must have a strong dash of the smith as well as of the joiner in his composition, his shop must have a stout vice fixed in a convenient part of it, and a few good files always available for brass or for iron. (The reader is doubtless aware that the same file must not be used for both these metals.) Drills for metal, some of them of small clockmaker's sizes with a bow and breast-plate for working them, will belong to this department, which will also include a screw-plate for tapping wires of various sizes from one-eighth of an inch downwards, and cutting pliers or nippers for dividing the wire.

The tool-chest must contain a thoroughly good brace and bits; and among the last should be some one of the various forms of adjustable centre-bits for cutting large circular holes of graduated dimensions up to 3 inches diameter.

In connection with this it may here be mentioned that most of the holes bored with the brace and bits (though not the huge holes just referred to), will be scorched or charred with a red-hot iron, in order to clear them of splinters, and allow a perfectly free passage for the air which will pass through them. A few pieces of iron rod, of sizes suitable for this purpose, will therefore be required. Many of these holes will be also countersunk, that is, rendered conical at their extremity, in order to receive the conical feet of the pipes which receive from these conduits their supply of wind. This countersunk portion is also scorched or charred, and two or three conical irons will be wanted for this purpose. But we have not yet come to this. When we are ready for these irons, we can have them made by any blacksmith, or we may have put aside some stout morsels of old iron from which we ourselves may contrive to fashion them.

An important question must next be asked.

Is a turning-lathe absolutely necessary as part of the plant of our factory? We must answer this. We should be sorry to deny that a small organ certainly can be and may be built without the aid of a lathe. We know that it has been done. But it is equally undeniable that the absence of a lathe, or of access to a lathe, will necessitate the purchase of certain parts (wooden pipe-feet for instance, and rack-pins), at an outlay which will bear an appreciable proportion to the first cost of a simple and inexpensive machine. Pressed, then, to say if our workshop must include a lathe, we are bound to reply in the affirmative, explaining, in the same breath, that all the purposes of the young organ-builder will be answered by a lathe of humble character and trifling cost. We ourselves, during several years of early beginnings, used a small clockmaker's lathe by Fenn, of Newgate Street, just capable of admitting between its centres the little billet of wood ready for shaping as a pipe-foot, that is to say, about 7 inches in length, and from 2 inches down to half an inch in diameter. We still possess this little lathe, and still sometimes use it for small work. Some such simple lathe, or some lathe still simpler, being voted as necessary, the usual turning-chisels and gouges will of course accompany it, and we shall assume that our readers possess a sufficient acquaintance with the wood-turner's art to require no hints from us on the subject other than those which we shall give in regular course as we proceed. If they are fortunate enough to possess a superior lathe, with slide-rest and slow motion for turning iron and brass, they will find the machine most conducive to good and durable workmanship, and we shall not hesitate to point out, as we go on, how materially it will assist us in giving strength, firmness, and finish, to various parts of our work.

We have furnished, then, our workshop, or rather, let us say, we see it in our "mind's eye" furnished as we should wish it to be. And now we may lay in our stock of wood.

Several boards of half-inch pine, perfectly dry and sound, without knots; these are of first necessity. Such boards are generally about 12 feet in length and from 12 to 15 or even 20 or more inches in breadth. If a little stock can be laid in of such boards when an opportunity occurs of obtaining exceptionally clean stuff, it will be well to have them by us. A board or two of three-quarters stuff, and a board of inch stuff, all sound and clean pine, must be provided.

And here we may pause for a moment.