Author Topic: The Mouldy Accordion.  (Read 25906 times)

Offline S. Heslop

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Re: The Mouldy Accordion.
« Reply #25 on: July 12, 2015, 10:37:00 AM »
hi brill don't no if you no this but theirs a program on the TV named haw its made they did one on the  accordion

I caught that on youtube when looking up accordion building stuff. It's a watchable show but they usually skip over the stuff I actually want to see. I'm still not sure how they make accordion reed plates. Although looking at the sides of the thing, it seems they might be punched. I did find a video of a guy matching the reed to a plate, which was just filed till it fit.

Anyways i've not been working on this thing too hard since the bronchitis got worse, and I figured the stuff in the garage wasn't doing it any favours. But i've got all the reeds leathered and waxed in now. My enthusiasm for the whole thing has been ruined by the slow pace though, and I really just want to get back and finish off the banjo.

I'm thinking I might just get the thing re-assembled for now though. But the big problem is that the bellows still smell. It seems obvious spraying vinegar on them was a stupid idea now, but alas. So I decided to give them a wash in break cleaner. I thought all break cleaner was tetrachloroethylene, which is used in dry cleaning, but this stuff from Rob Wilson says it's mostly light naphtha. I did a test on a bit of cardboard soaked in vinegar beforehand and it seemed to improve the smell, and didn't damage the cardboard.


Sloshed it about in a bucket for a while. I wasn't too worried about the stuff dissolving the animal glue. I didn't imagine it'd do so to begin with, but even if it did it wouldn't be too hard to get back together. Either way it held together and it's now drying.


The break cleaner is now alot dirtier than it was. So I suppose it did the trick. Hopefully it got rid of the smell, but it's a bit hard to tell currently.

Offline awemawson

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Re: The Mouldy Accordion.
« Reply #26 on: July 12, 2015, 11:19:08 AM »
..... arh ... hum....arh ....Milton  :scratch:
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline S. Heslop

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Re: The Mouldy Accordion.
« Reply #27 on: July 13, 2015, 04:39:24 PM »
..... arh ... hum....arh ....Milton  :scratch:

I couldn't find the stuff, and I think it's water based. I was worried it'd make the cardboard fall apart.

Anyways I was hoping i'd have some good photos of some fancy leatherwork to show but it was pretty much a disaster. Plus the accordions a bit of a mess with a bunch of the reeds not sounding, and me being unable to get them to sound properly. Plus I've really got no idea how an accordion 'should' feel, to know if what seems bad being more just how accordions are.

This whole thing has kinda soured me on the idea of the accordion too. So i'm gonna give it a break and try get the banjo finished.

Thanks for all the advise posted.

Offline awemawson

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Re: The Mouldy Accordion.
« Reply #28 on: July 13, 2015, 05:05:14 PM »
Sainsburys on the household cleaning shelf !

(also used for sterilising babies bottles)
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Online David Jupp

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Re: The Mouldy Accordion.
« Reply #29 on: July 14, 2015, 02:42:13 AM »
Milton is just expensive bleach (sodium hypochlorite).