Anatomy of a WurliTzer Theatre Pipe Organ
Chimes.
To complete the original tuned percussions I started on the Chimes. There are
only 18 notes of these.
The Chimes are hung on a hook bolt which is adjusted with a wing nut to get the Chime at the
correct height relative to its hammer. In this case the ends of the hook bolts were all
deformed to prevent the nuts working themselves off. Removing the nuts to get the bolts out
so the support rail could be refinished could only be done with the use of excessive force which
caused several broken bolts. They were all rusty anyway. It seems that similar sized replacements
are very hard to find. This problem is yet to be solved.
The hammer heads are heavy steel but they have an insert of softer material that actually
strikes the Chimes. The original material, in this case, appears to be linen phenolic.
These were worn, chipped and sometimes split. New inserts were
turned out of nylon rod.
This was one thing I did not do myself because I do not have a lathe. The new inserts
sound similar to, but possibly a little harder than, the originals.
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