Restoring the Casavant Pipe Organ -- Part 2 -- Rewiring the chest pouchboards

One of the unexpected tasks of this project was brought to light in a casual conversation with one of the organ builders I am in contact with when I mentioned this project.  He stated something to the effect of, "You are aware that one such a project if you disturb or move wiring that is cotton covered, it needs to be removed, right?" 

The fact was that with the new system you keep the driver components close as possible to the chests to avoid problems with inductive pickup of lightning.  The connection between the console and the pipe area is relatively short (< 10 feet) but still.  This will be accomplished by either the existing fiber optic technology or the newer Wifi that is in development.

So to go about this project, I realized that since I had standard sized pouch boards that were very easily removable, I could come up with a jig to make the whole process easier.   So with the help of a 1x8x6'  board, I was able to come up with the requisite piece.

This was incredibly important because earlier attempts at trying to wire it with just individual enamel wire was disastrous (tangles and crimps) and such a thing would have been impossible without.

The first step was to trim off the original cotton covered wire from the pouch board.

Then for each of the valves, the process was to dip the end of the wire (about 2") quickly into the solder pot and tin the end of the wire. 

The next step was the feed through the wooden hole on the board and wrap around the eustachian pin and solder. Repeat this step multiple times, while weaving the wire through the loom and attaching at the end. 

At the completion of all of these, a type of wire wrap casing is applied to the bundle of wires and fastened at both ends via heat shrink tubing and you end up with the finished product ready for termination on the printed circuit board of the output drivers from the relay. 

Now I just have to repeat this now about 12 more times!  The real difficult ones are the pedal and offset chests that are inside the organ case and cannot be easily removed.   Stay tuned...