Broken Box
alexrat
The action is superb, the hand made reeds sound great, and the musette
is tuned the way I wanted: light or swing style. So far so good. This
winter I noticed an air leak on the right side that got progressively
worse. Upon examination a wood piece in the front frame was cracked
with the grain. This crack went past the corner and into the top wood
frame. My dealer took a photo and sent it to the manufacturer. He
concluded that the box must have been damaged ie dropped. I can see
that reasoning, especially with the crack extending through the joint.
Trouble is, this box ain't been dropped, to the best of my knowledge.
There are no marks, not that necessarily proves anything. My dealer
fixed the frame with marine epoxy and it plays and sounds fine.
I guess I don't have a question. I still recommend the manufacturer
(or assembler what every the case may be.) Now that it is playable
again I'm happy; but I guess I believe that the company should have
paid for the repair?
BOba
Ventura
in my humble opinion
people will be seeing a lot more of this type of
problem, as the hemmoraging of experience continues
and the substitution of Asian frames for Italian continues
the new companies, the new people, in so many cases
just don't have the understanding of material that
decades and generations of empiric experimentation
give to this type of process.
was the wood kilned? was it the right type of wood
for this particular section? was the grain aligned
appropriate to the use?
or
wood is wood is wood... what do you mean kilned?
what difference does the grain make?
this cardboard looks just fine, let's make some
bellows today... non-acidic museum quality...
hey this leather feels ok, at least i think it's
leather... salts residue in the leather?...
i picked up some glue on sale, the kid at the dollar
store said it should work fine on accordions... how
many different types of Glue were once used?
Ciao
Ventura
alexrat wrote:
> I bought a new free bass 34 key PA less than a year ago. Alessandrini.
> The action is superb,
action assembly was bought from someone else
the hand made reeds sound great
were bought from someone else too
, and the musette
> is tuned the way I wanted: light or swing style.
wonder if they do their own tuning, if it was luck, or
a little of both
wonder if the body was even made in Italy... this type
of wood instability is endemic to the Asian product
Johann... please do not read the next line
> My dealer
> fixed the frame with marine epoxy and it plays and sounds fine.
Johann, i warned you! now you won't be able to
sleep tonight!
(just teasing)
Ciao
Ventura
snavoyosky
Bob, you present a situation that most dealers, etc. relate as being
damaged by the owner. Now it's true that some owners do not have the
constitution to amply care for their instrument and things like this
can happen. But from my experiences with you in the past--and from
what you stated above----I view this as being climatic conditions in
conjunction with wood curing.
When you stated that you purchased this less than a year ago and if we
assume this meant April of 2007, coupled with your experiencing air
leakage in a progressive manner, tells me that this could have been
caused summer humid times and especially by the dryness due to indoor
heating and lower humidity. I believe you live in New York state or
New Jersey, and most certainly the winter months can cause havoc
indoors with wood products. So it could have been a sliver crack at
the factory (over there) and was made worse by climatic conditions
(over here) and the stresses transmitted continuation.
Of course this is supposition as I haven't seen the problem, but it
certainly appears to be the culprit.
Expansion and contraction plays a very important part in the
accordion's producibility. Keyboard's can rattle in the winter and
stick in the summer--all do to humidity % and temperature.
SJN
whatsanike
"Ventura" <acco...@att.net> wrote in message
news:5O0Vj.180877$D_3.1...@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
Accordions were seldom made with really good wood, like 50 nor 100 year old
wood. It just was not available once the accordion industry strarted makeing
so many Pinao Accordions in the late 1920's and early 1930's. That's after
some people in the industry decided to standardize the PA with 41 keys and
120 Stradella bass.
i have seen several Hohner accordions from the 1930's with bady warped
bellows frames.One had a section so badly twisted that I had to take a piece
from another frame and replace the section. The keys twist and not just from
celluloid shrinkage but from wood warpage. The wood also shrinks and won't
form a airtight seal. Someimes it can be reglued. Then the celluloid
shrinks. the key plate on a Chromatic Button accordion made form a solid
piece of celluloid will shrink and the hole won't line up with all the
buttons. Then some of the holes will need to be reamed because readjusting
the buttons canj;t take up enough of the space. A common place for the
casing to crack is on the corners. This can be fixed by gluing the corners
with a band clamp around the casing. The glue used should generally match
the type of glue used to make the accordion, when the old joint is involved.
This is nearly always hide glue, but often when the wood had fractured,
another water-based glue con be used like "Weldbond" white glue, one of my
favorites.
I can't imagine anyone at a dollar store makein a big effort to sell glue.
One type of glue that I use can't be found anywhere else than a Dollar
store, but which that is, I'm not telling;. It is a secret of my success.
hvdveen
Regards,
Hillebrand
http://www.forzando.org
"snavoyosky" <SNavo...@gmail.com> schreef in bericht
news:3d6510ee-4824-4372...@m73g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
alexrat
>
> Bob, you present a situation that most dealers, etc. relate as being
> damaged by the owner. Now it's true that some owners do not have the
> constitution to amply care for their instrument and things like this
> can happen. But from my experiences with you in the past--and from
> what you stated above----I view this as being climatic conditions in
> conjunction with wood curing.
> When you stated that you purchased this less than a year ago and if we
> assume this meant April of 2007, coupled with your experiencing air
> leakage in a progressive manner, tells me that this could have been
> caused summer humid times and especially by the dryness due to indoor
> heating and lower humidity. I believe you live in New York state or
> New Jersey, and most certainly the winter months can cause havoc
> indoors with wood products. So it could have been a sliver crack at
> the factory (over there) and was made worse by climatic conditions
> (over here) and the stresses transmitted continuation.
> Of course this is supposition as I haven't seen the problem, but it
> certainly appears to be the culprit.
>
I do live in central New York state, though we have a humidifier that
supposedly was working last winter. The humidity level was about 44%.
Wouldn't the fact that the crack went through the joint of the frame
indicate, uh, trauma?
BOba
snavoyosky
>
> - Show quoted text -
Not necessarily. We haven't seen the problem to make factual prognosis/
diagnosis, so all remains as supposition. The fact that air leakage
was progressive after purchase reflects conditions affecting the
progression. It's possible that the factory is responsible *if* it was
dropped. It's possible that you inspected this new instrument in your
delight and never noticed any damage. When air leakage happens and one
notices it is progressively getting worse, and inspects the instrument
for tell-tale signs, like air flow or wind noise, the prudent thing
would be to have it looked over by an expert for his evaluation,
before taking it back to whomever. None of us on this group can
effectively render an opinion strictly based on your comments. A hands-
on inspection is paramount.
whatsanike
"snavoyosky" <SNavo...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:3d6510ee-4824-4372...@m73g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
SJN
And isn't Steve the same person who said that squeezing the bellows without
pressing a note would cause them to leak?
Accordions should be carefully stored and played under the best atmospheric
conditions for optimum long life, but I don't think an accordion should be
so delicate as to spontaneously develop a crack without trauma being
involved, unless the manufacturer made a mistake in materials or
workmanship. Of course we don't really know if the accordion was dropped
inside its case or what. People can be away from home and a relative or
cleaning person might drop the case or even throw it. I have fixed many of
these instruments with glue and a band clamp where the casing cracked in one
or more places at the corner of the bellows frame. This happens mostly on
old accordions where the glue and wood has shrunk over many decades, and may
easily occur when such a weakened instrument is dropped inside the case or
out. Even a new accordion checked into airline baggage can and will have any
kind of damage including that described by the owner of this one.
~Ike