The Faventia barrel piano (Part 2)

I had a little time this weekend, so I could drill out the pin block for the new pins.


These are the tools that are used to install the pins, a tuning hammer, an air hammer, my sample block and sample pins, and a Caliper.

Here is a close up of the pins. I have not set the pins to the final depth into the pin block, or the final tension.

All of the strings installed, now for tuning. Maybe music this week.

The Puzzle

This entry is for Jane (she did not get to see the puzzle all assembled).

Over this past weekend I started to put together a puzzle that I got from my mother's house. I enjoy putting together the old wooden puzzled, and this one was no exception. This puzzle was one of the most difficult puzzles that I have run into. Over the weekend Linda, Jane, Rich, Diane, Peter and myself worked at putting it together.

The person that cut out the puzzle separated the colors, so every person, horse, dog, carriage, house and window was not connected to any other part of the puzzle. We had to build up the snow and the sky, until we found a space to put something in. The other issue we ran into, was the back of the puzzle was the same color as the snow, so we kept running into pieces that were upside down.

Thanks everyone for the help and Jane this is what is looked like.

The Faventia barrel piano (Part 1)

A few years ago (like 10) I purchased a Faventia Barrel Piano at a shop in Hillsboro NH. This piano was made in Spain around 1955 and was sold to tourist (it was cheaply built). Sears also sold the same piano with a cart and a stuffed donkey. You can turn the crank on the front of the piano and it plays a song, just like a music box. This piano has another crank on the side to change the tune. I think it has 6 songs on the barrel.

When I got the piano, I tuned it and played the songs. After about 5 minutes it was out of tune, and all I could get out of it was noise. After some Internet research I found that this piano is noted for not staying in tune. A little more research showed the best fix for this problem was to replace the wooden block that holds the tuning pins. I found a guy 'Al' on the Internet that had done this repair, and he was willing to help me make the repair. So after storing the broken piano for 10 years, I have started to repair it.

The first step was to take the piano apart, remove the strings and remove tuning pins.



The next step was to remove the old wood that held the tuning pins (it's called a pin block).

I replaced the old pin block with a brand new pin block, that was a laminated maple block, that was 1/2 inch thicker that the old pin block.

Using glue, clamps biscuits and screws I attached the new pin block to the piano.

Al is sending me new strings, and tuning pins. When these come in I should be able to get music out of the piano.