Restoration of the ex-Irvin's Marenghi

Reservoir

The first item to be put back into the case was the bass pipe assembly. However, I needed to fully test it while I still had access, so I needed the reservoir to be fully working first. It was completely dismantled and restored with new leather. A new bottom board was fitted - the existing one was not long enough to be properly fixed to the floor. It had been roughly fixed with screws jammed through the base at an angle, splitting it badly. That was a botched job done in 1990. The spill valve was re-leathered, and all springs, hooks and eyes were de-rusted and treated with black Hammerite. This gives it a clean and tidy look, and should prevent rust for some years.

The wind trunking from the blower had been routed through two 90 degree bends so I needed to make a new manifold box with only one bend. A new double-layer cow-hide trunking was made to take the wind up into the main chest via the original dust filter.

During this work I found that the glue was taking its time to dry, so fetched my hygrometer. This quickly read 95% relative humidity. At this point I abandoned all work in the shed and concentrated on small parts in my own (dry) workshop. When the reservoir had been completed, I was ready for testing chests and pipes on the wind.

© 2018, John Page