Herrington Action Disassembly - How to Fix Sticky Buttons

[Steve Schulteis]

My Herrington had a couple of sticky buttons. It felt a bit like they were getting hung up on gunked-up felt bushings, but once the end plate was off they were still sticky. I ended up tracking the problem down, and since there isn't much info online about servicing Herrington's unusual action, I thought I would share the process I went through to fix it. Some of the button caps are very snug on their posts, so it might not be obvious that it's safe to just pull them off.

 

 

[Tiposx]

Interesting video. I wonder what the advantages were of such a complicated assembly. I wouldn’t like to reproduce the brass sliding part, even though I have the equipment to do so. Perhaps it is was seen as a way to use coil springs rather than torsion springs.

[alex_holden]

I think the later models have a simpler design.

[Frank Edgley]

His later instruments definitely had a much simpler design. Harold was a very smart guy, and a good friend. This had to be one of his earlier instruments...one that I have never seen. Before I made my first concertina, Harold sold one of his early six-sided instruments to the Windsor/Detroit Comhaltas branch. I don't remember what the mechanism was like, except it used coil springs. Comhaltas sent it back to Harold and he changed the type of action. It may have been just like the one shown above. I don't remember as I was just getting into it, in those days.  I seem to remember at the very first "Squeeze-In" (where I met Harold) that the Button Box was in the process of designing their anglo and experimented with coil springs. Generally speaking, simpler is best, as long as it does the job well.