DonH

Thought I would provide an update on my most recent learnings on this subject. I found a picture of a damaged keyboard, revealing some of the inner workings of the key mechanism, and attached a cropped copy here. This shows a pair of side-by-side keys operating the back valves. At the A location appears a hinge point, and at B are small holes for accepting/supporting springs. From this, I figure the mechanism is like in the attached sketch, where the top lever acts on the second lever that operates the valve. To keep the top key levers from having slop in the rest position, I figure there must be a flat spot at the contact location when in the closed position, as in the picture, that keeps it fixed. That requires a close synchronization in the timing of the closing positions at the valve and the key levers, which must make it a bit finicky to set up. Plus, I can see how maintenance would be issue too, for example trying to replace a broken spring. Not sure if anyone else out there has comments to this, but I suppose this is the answer, or an answer, to my initial question. Don

Hi Theo, Thanks for the reply, and I believe you are right. I have since made very close observation of a video of the instrument being played, and the inner row keys move like they are hinged at the base of the keyboard. So there is definitely something more complex going on inside the keyboard to reverse that motion. Perhaps the key is pushing against a second lever that hinges at the top? I guess the principle of Occam's razor where the simplest solution is the better one does not apply to early accordion construction.

Hi, Its my first post here. I'm guessing the readership here overlaps with that at Melodeon.net, where I posted a question similar to this one, but just in case here it is here. I did find flutina related discussion in this forum, so perhaps there is someone here with an answer to my question. I am planning to make a reproduction flutina, having valves on both sides of the keyboard, as in the attached picture. What I am not sure about is how a lifting action for the valves is achieved for those at the backside of the keyboard. I am thinking the levers for those valves must be hinged at the top part of the keyboard, although pictures available on the internet (all I have to go by) do not show this detail. I attached a rough sketch of a typical valve and lever mechanism for the front valves, and what I think the back valve mechanism might be. Is this right, or is there some more complicated mechanism involved. Any help, or pictures to show this detail, would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Don