Opus 89, 2010

 Case Construction Photos

While the exterior wood of the case is American black cherry, most of the interior parts are made of yellow poplar. These pieces are the members of the back frames of the organ, and have mortises milled in them for loose tenons.

The organ case has a variety of curved elements, some of which are made by gluing up thin pieces of wood. Here you can see several thin layers being glued together by clamping them against a form with the proper radius.

Pat Lowry and Pat Thieszen clamp glued laminations over a form.

A variety of case frames awaiting assembly.

The lower part of the case has “tongue & groove” woodwork, where narrow cherry boards are mounted on underlying poplar frames.

This is one of the brackets at the side of the lower case.

Kent makes the center façade toeboard, here sitting upside-down.

   
Two curving pieces that are part of the uppermost casework above the Swell.

A collection of completed parts: case frames in the back, stacks of tongue & groove panels on rolling carts, and perch boards that will be located over the windchests for permit easier tuning.

Two dozen of the 48 tongue & groove case panels, which are fitted in the side frames of the case.

Pat Lowry sands wooden elements that will be part of the pipeshades.

Blanks of western red cedar glued up for swell shades. The butcher block construction prevents warping, which would keep the shades from closing fully, decreasing the swell effect.

After each edge is given a special angled profile and the individual shades are cut to length, they are assembled in a frame. This is the shadefront for the Choir.

The manual keyboards have cow bone naturals and ebony sharps. The key cheeks are black walnut.

The lower part of the console case. The console is “detached”, meaning that it is not built into the main case but is separated from it—in this instance, by about six feet.

Nearing completion. Like the organ case, the console is made of American black cherry. The console interior and music rack are veneered with Carpathian elm burl.

The console case has been fitted around the chassis. The chassis extends below the floor around the console to permit the trackers to run underneath into the organ.

Rosewood swell shoes, and the mechanism for the Pedal couplers.

Terraces for Swell and Pedal stops, awaiting the installation of drawknobs.