Building report 20 key barrel-organ by Walter Höffle.

On tis page i describe a report of the building of the 20 key Höffle organ. Although i follow as much as possible the description from the book, i changed some cases. Because that the measure tables of the organpipes and the way of constructing them are slightly different from organs, which i constructed earlier, my interests were primary focussed on the makting of the pipes. Walter uses as kind of wood fir wood. I used beech wood, because i like the sound of it and i have heard already an organ with hardwood pipes. On the picture below, the first pipes.

For the making of the pipes, i used some self made tools. On the picture below you see a sandplank(piece of wood with machinery sandpaper). This sandplank is very usefull to straighten the sides of the pipes. The second piece of tools is a woodclip made by two beechwood slats of wich one is fastened on the bottom plate and two pieces of screwed rod with thumb nuts.

The bellows i have made them om several points different then described in the book. So i have not used the metal hinges, but therefore some thicker strips of leather. I have used the leather on the hinge points just one time and has besides the hinge function also a making up function. At last i used smaller pieces of leather, wich makes the assembly easier.

After that, i started with the encapsulation of the organ. It loans to compare the price of birch plywood of several D.I.Y shops or wood industries. The pedestal i made of pinewood because of the decorative drawings of the grains. It expresses more that this is a nature product.

I am not a painter, woodcutter or other brilliant person in decorating, so i have searched for a simple technique to create beautiful looking instrument. The technique i have chozen with this organ is very easy and also beautiful. Just burning some drawings and decorations with a soldering bolt. The drawings are placed first with carbon paper and then burned afterwards. The name "Guillaume" is the french variant of my first name. The roman number 3 means the third organ built.

An other place, where i have deviated from the original plans and where i expect some critisism from the purists, is the center distance between the air holes of the commandblock. Originally they use a center distance of 3,86 mm, i use a center distance of 5 mm. By applying a distance of 7,5 mm from te guiding side to the center of the first hole, the 20 holes are nicely spreaded over the paper strip of 110 mm. The drilling of the holes in the command block becomes less critical and you do not need precision tools for drilling. Also i have apllied beech wood in stead of sixangular brass, because i have seen it applied in several factory organs. The winding reel das been made of a piece of PVC of 100mm diameter, filled on the sides by two plywood discs. On this sides, two plexiglas discs are glued. Also i made the guiding walls of plexiglas, in the hope to diminish the wear and tear of the guiding sides.

I have made the back side in two parts. There are two advantages for this: the drilling of the holes for the crankshaft and the transport mechanic goes easier, the widht is the same (150 mm) of the command module. A second and in my opinion more important advantage is that you can get easier to the adjusting screws to adjust the membranes.

I did not use the brass pipes for connecting the plastic hoses on the windchamber. In stead of that i drilled the holes 10 mm deep with a diameter of 0,5 mm less than the outside diameter of the plastic hose. With a pencil sharpener i conically formed the ends of the plastic hoses and these are pressed in the holes, so more simple and cheaper.

I have foreseen the back side of technical information. Often i meet people, who have questions of the working of an barrel-organ or want to know the technical details.

The stopslides are made from 4 mm pexiglass. Also the in between laying dams are made from plexiglas with the same thickness. Because everything has then the same thickness, i did not use flannel. The four screws, wich fixes the pipeblock, are slightly screwed so the slides still can work smoothly.

The cover on it and there it is after eight months hobbying every evening. After intonation, adjusting membranes and voicing, there came the sound of a good sounding German barrel-organ. With a simple punch and the computer programm "Midiboek", i made the first melodies. I am very satisfied of the result.

You are listening now at a recording of this organ.