End of Year Maintenance - SVPC

This Tuesday night was our annual end-of-year maintenance for the Choir of Bells.

Well, *mostly* annual -- I've just completed my 5th SIXTH season there, having started in the Fall of 2002. We did the maintenance in 2003, 2004, and 2005. Then, in the summer of 2006, we sent the bells back to the factory for a complete refurbishment on the inner 3 octaves, and "clean & inspect" on the 4th & 5th octaves. After they came back, we switched to using "Sunshine Cloths" instead of those awful rouge cloths, which meant that the bells were much less gunky inside & we didn't need to do the EOY maintenance on them in the summer of 2007. This year, however, we did.

So, instead of meeting in the Sanctuary as we usually do, I reserved us a room in the Fellowship Hall with access to the newly-refurbished kitchen. Then, we followed this procedure:

*) Disassemble all the bells;
*) wash the castings (This removes the surface dirt - you wouldn't wax your car without washing it first, would you??);
*) clean the "innards" - basically, wipe off any dust or gunk from the clapper head, shaft, and springs;
*) paste polish the bells;
*) re-assemble the bells; and
*) put them away.

Meanwhile, we check to see if anything needs to be replaced or repaired. This year, Brian had to replace the index pin on the D3, but that was it.

Of course I took pictures and uploaded them to Flickr!

And, here's one of the pics, just to "wet" your appetite! ;-)



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