Toe boards

[vaneramos]

As Les prepared to leave for 10 days, he set me up with work to do while he is away. Sunday evening he left a phone message for me: "Bring a notebook tomorrow. I have a lot of information to pass on to you in the next few days. I have an encyclopedic knowledge, and strong opinions on some things. But I want you to start forming opinions of your own."

Could this job be turning into an apprenticeship?

This week I've been on my feet eight hours a day, every day, drilling hundreds upon hundreds of holes. We're constructing toe boards, so called because the toes of all the organ pipes insert into them. They form the upper surface of the wind chests, channelling pressurized air to the pipes. These channels are complex, each with an expansion chamber called a cell. In this image the cells are exposed, but they'll be covered with a wood veneer drilled with smaller holes for the toes. For each channel, I have drilled as many as seven holes. The size of each cell varies according to the size of the pipe. These are the largest holes I drilled: 75 mm. The steel bit is designed to operate at high speeds and temperatures. It gives off palpable heat when operating. It works at about 1,000 rpm. In other words, the outer edge of the drill is moving at 850 kph.

The lumber is known as poplar here, elsewhere as American whitewood. It actually comes from the tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera. It has a smooth, buttery texture when planed smooth.

Comments

[butterflyminds.livejournal.com]

It must be satisfying building something like that. Are the organs destined for churches or somewhere else? When I read one of your earlier posts I wasn't sure if they were that type of organ.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

These are pipe organs. Practically all the ones I've worked on belong to churches, although I have to voice some pipes today that come out of a small organ in someone's home. Few churchs have the funds to afford pipe organs anymore, so most of our work involves refurbishing old ones, however for the next few months we'll be building a new church organ mostly from scratch, except for some old pipes and structural components donated from another church. These new toe board are part of that project.

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

This is a beautiful photo.

The evolution of this job/apprenticeship/whatever is fascinating. As always, I'm wishing you fabulosity for the next segment of it. ;)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thanks Pete. Fascinating and exciting for me! Sometimes physically exhausting, too, and frankly I'm pleased to be working at something that physically tires me as well as mentally stimulates me.