What Is The One Thing You Know Now That You Wish You'd Known Then?

[Guest]

I'm really interested at trying my hand at restoring an old Anglo concertina. I have the excellent "Concertina Repair Manual", and thought I'd try to find a low end, cheap, beat up concertina on ebay as my first project, reasoning that:

 

[a] all the really good ones will be snapped up by other people, and

better to start my hands on learning on a less valuable instrument to make my mistakes on.

 

I was wondering, is there something you know now about concertina restoration that you really wished you'd known when you started out? [i'm busy reading all the past postings, trying to learn as much as I can.]

 

With thanks

Morgana

[Samantha]

Just because one of the reed pans has been glued in place doesn't mean that you should do that to the other one!

Samantha

[malcolm clapp]

Is this "True Confessions" time?

 

OK, I confess!

 

On English made concertinas, the bushing of the buttons where the rod passes through the button used to take me hours doing each one individually, cutting a little square of felt, inserting it into the hole in the button and forming it into just the right shape to accept the rod.

 

Then some one suggested a much easier method:

 

Cut a strip of felt of the correct width (which of course will vary according to the size of the hole in the button), say 6 inches long, then cut a 45 degree taper to a point at one end and thread all the buttons on to the felt; then simply snip each one off.

 

Easy, and in a tenth of the time. Why I had not done it this way before I don't know; it's so obvious.

 

I bet I'm not the only one here with a similar experience....

 

Good luck, Morgana!

Edited November 9, 2005 by malcolm clapp

[d.elliott]

undo the little screws that clamp the reed into the frame, not even to effect a repair, it was just to see the shape of the reed tongue better!.

 

Dave E

[Frank Edgley]

You probably already know this or maybe an even better method, but one way of replacing the reed in the right position is to put a piece of cigarette paper under the tongue, press the tongue down and tighten the screws. The paper acts as a spacer around the edges of the tongue.

[d.elliott]

Thanks Frank, we all get there eventually, I tried fine shim stock, then baking foil and ended up with fag paper!

 

Dave

 

I'll add another confession,

 

when tuning steel reeds, some rred tongues are made from steel that is quite soft, but in some concertinas the reed steel seems glass hard.

 

I tried using a 'very fine' diamond file, at least it was sold as 'very fine'.

 

The reeds bowed like fury and it left very course scratch marks (potential fatigue stress points), an absolue failure!

 

Dave

Edited November 13, 2005 by d.elliott

[Theo]

For tuning the smallest reeds there is nothing to beat a lolipop stick with medium or fine grit wet & dry abrasive paper stuck on each side. The soon wear out but are very easy and cheap to make, and much kinder to the reeds than a file.

 

And for bigger reeds where the above is too slow you need a swiss file. Not every file sold as "swiss" is actually made in Switzerland. Look for Vallorbe, or Grobet branded files, and expect to pay something like 10 GBP each. Cheap files are more expensive in the long run.

Edited November 13, 2005 by Theo

[Henrik Müller]

...

...

On English made concertinas, the bushing of the buttons where the rod passes through the button used to take me hours doing each one individually, cutting a little square of felt, inserting it into the hole in the button and forming it into just the right shape to accept the rod.

 

Then some one suggested a much easier method:

...

...

Yep - that's Bob Tedrow, the procedure can be seen here on his home page.

 

There are a lot of little repair/design gems on Bob's page. One of them - this - is an important one, see the second photo, with the text: "A jig is cut to match the button holes on the concertina. This maintains good pad/button/hole alignment during repadding."

 

Especially with non-rivetted actions, the buttons are completely wobbly-wobbly when the end plate is off - leading to large sideway movements. This can eventually result in leaking pads when the instrument is assembled. So Bob's jig keeps "the bunch off buttons together" while the pads are replaced.

 

In my "build-my-own" project, this has led to this construction:

 

 

 

It is not the latest fashion in end plates! It's a dummy end plate that will allow me to get my fingers in and fiddle with the action mechanics - when I come to that part (which is soon).

 

/Henrik

[malcolm clapp]

...

...

On English made concertinas, the bushing of the buttons where the rod passes through the button used to take me hours doing each one individually, cutting a little square of felt, inserting it into the hole in the button and forming it into just the right shape to accept the rod.

 

Then some one suggested a much easier method:

...

...

Yep - that's Bob Tedrow, the procedure can be seen here on his home page.

 

 

Very much the same, though I was shown it by somebody completely unconnected with concertina, some one from whom I purchased some felt and who wanted to know what I needed it for.

I hadn't seen this on Bob's page before; must do some more on-line research in my copious spare time....

 

MC