LX ejector pneumatic fix

[aeoliandave]

Maybe your LX door doesn't open as wide as it used to? Maybe a wee bit sluggish? Check out the flexible tube beside the hinge fitting. I knew I'd have to do this eventually - mine snapped in half.
Electrolux engineers used clear Tygon (aka aquarium tubing), which at the time was all the Jet Age rage; they couldn't know this material hardens and breaks down into a gooey brown mass over time. Also reacts badly in contact with brass, which is what the LX nipples are. We player piano folks know Tygon and Perflex all too well.
Anyway, this 'stiff & sticky' really slows down the door action sequence. Pictures show the exactly 7" long tube I replaced with thick wall grey player piano trackerbar tubing - this has the long life & flexibility to withstand the contortions the tube goes through when the door flys open, without binding. The brass nipple connector at the suction adj. dial was clogged with green/brown gum as was the nozzle inner sensing 'rivet', which has in fact a pinhole bleed on its end.
I also inserted a ballpoint pen spring inside the nozzle end of the grey tubing where it takes that torsional 90 degree bend through the door frame to prevent collapse. The length of the tube is crucial as the tube must allow for folding when the door is closed. Too short and the tube stretches - too long and the tube pinches and kinks. 7".
Now the door flings open, the nozzle bumper bottoms out with a satisfying thunk, and the demonstration bag I concocted filled with a shaped styrofoam block flys a good 12 feet across the room. Whee! I'll be doing this retrofit on the other LX's.
Dave, a new member up here in Canada.

 

[aeoliandave]

LX ejector pneumatic fix

Note the sticky brown tube beside the hinge

 

[aeoliandave]

LX ejector pneumatic fix

Tygon closeup

 

[aeoliandave]

LX ejector pneumatic fix

Short length of original yellowed Tygon coming from dial pot, brass connector nipple underneath the crossbar. New grey rubber tube fed through door trip lever.

 

[aeoliandave]

LX ejector pneumatic fix

Greased, polished up & ready to re-install.

 

[aeoliandave]

LX ejector pneumatic fix

1954 LX all polished & gleaming showing the clean lines with the hose, tool caddy and cord winder off. Its the 50s Lincoln or Imperial of American vacuum cleaners, eh? The cats Hector & Dexter luv the zephyr hum of this machine.

 

[charles~richard]

Great posting!

And welcome, from a fellow Electrolux nut! I have several LXs and and LXI but have never futzed with them much. It's a beautiful machine but not my favorite Electrolux. It would be fun to get the ejection function fully working again on one of them. I don't know if any of them even work at all. I haven't used them in so long. Another tip is to lubricate the channe that the ejector runs along. What I did once upon a time was to lightly spray it with WD40, then wipe off the excess so the dust bags don't get oily. That will also make a big difference!

P.S. Wouldn't latex tubing work as well? That's what I had considered as a replacement - having noted, as you did, that the plastic tubing fossilizes and gets that strange sticky surface.

 

[aeoliandave]

Thrilled to have stumbled across this group.

Thank you, Charles. I have admired your Theremin website for such a long time. Although I have always hankered for a theremin it wasn't until I happened to be in Ithaca visiting a friend at Cornell that I saw the notice that that very night Bob Moog was hosting a showing of the Leon Termen documentary, giving a demonstration of several models...and announcing the imminent availability of the Etherwave DIY kit. Whcih I promptly ordered from him and kitbashed & modified it into a wood 1930s RCA table radio shell as a self contained (power supplies/amp/speakers) portable theremin to play accompanied by any of the player pianos around here.

As for uncured medical yellow latex tubing, it is too soft & spongey to do the deed and also latex breaks down within a few years, while extruded & cured natural rubber (or neoprene) specificly for automatic music instrument restoration has the ideal properties of long life, firm yet yeilding flexibility and as I said, the thickwall tracker tubing has the perfect inside and outside diameter. I have rolls of the stuff in all sorts of sizes to service the needs of pneumatic players and would be pleased to provide short lengths to anyone who asks, gratis in a snailmail enveope.
I too have experience with liquid latex we use here in the prop shop. I soon intend to try the hose sealing proceedure with thinned out latex and a helper to keep the hose fully coated and clear of obstructions while draing and drying. I'll do a few test runs first with iretrievably hard cracked hose bits. I'll be reaming the hose first with alarge bottle brush on a long pole attached to a drill to avoid those trapped hairballs inside.

 

[charles~richard]

Latex hosing

Gotcha. Thing is, us mere mortal lay-people not in the player piano restoring trade may have a hard time finding tracker tubing. I do appreciate your offer to send some and will take you up on that. I'll email you with my snail mail address. Don't want to post it here; too many psychos with grudges lurking about behind the scenes...! Barring that, how would the clear plastic tubing used in aquariums work? That seems, actually, to be the closest replacement to the original material.

btw, what do you use to thin liquid latex? Ammonia? The stuff from theatrical makeup supply houses is rather on the creamy side; it never occurred to me to try thinning it out. That might just do the trick.

Thanks!

 

[tolivac]

The problem with my LX's here in hot humid NC is not only the tubing-but the ejector mechanism and spring in the body is corroded beyond recognition-the cleaner works though.

 

[aeoliandave]

Latex & hoses

Liquid latex is thinned with plain ol' tap water. I shake it up in a large lidded glass pickle jar and let it settle a while so the micro bubbles rise to the top and burst. Exposure to air causes the latex to thicken and set so keep that lid on til ready to pour. I'm going to suggest filling the hose half full, then having a buddy assist in sloshing the mixture all around like whipping a skipping rope and wrangling the hose upright to drain while connecting to a vacuum exhaust port. Gonna let gravity do its job and mount the vacuum up high in the basement rafters to let the hose dangle while being blown...and leave it hanging straight to dry a couple of days. Should be trying this this weekend...experiments on trashed hose bits bodes well in terms of concerns of the latex coating being pulled away from the surface under suction after drying thoroughly. With just the right consistancy it penetrates far enough into the interior hose layers to dry & lock the surface in place. Don't forget to shake & blow a generous heap of baby or talcum powder through the length before bending or flexing. Latex sticks to itself and you don't want to damage that brand new liner after all that irreversable toil. I'll dump in a whole package and agin use that buddy to shake it all about and blow it out... outside.
Btw, many of my Electrolux hoses that came with XXXs and LXs are woven in all vinyl - spiralling parralel dashed lines of light blue & grey on a cream ground.
What year would they be?

 

[vacjwt]

what dose that part do

my bag ejector hose mia but the bag ejector sill works