Accordina button mechanism
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Hi melodica friends,
I have searched the whole web for pictures or descriptions of the accordina button mechanism but I didn’t find anything that could explain to me how it works…
Surely there is the button itself, screwed to some sort of rod that goes through the instrument, and on the other end of the rod there is the valve – but where is the spring? And is it encased in any sort? Is there any mechanism that prevents the whole thing from rotating? And how does that all fit together? Has anyone got photos, descriptions etc.? Thank you so much in advance!
The standard Borel valve is among the simplest of valve designs: The button has a shoulder for a helical spring, which is around the rod that has the valve in the end, like in a ball-point pen. The button can rotate quite freely.
Thanks a lot, Tatu! So together with the original mechanism of the Borel accordina patent (which prevents the button from rotating but seems quite complicated to me) we would have two solutions… I’m searching for a way to use not round but hexagonal buttons thus to enlarge the hitting surface for the fingers, but that would mean that I need a mechanism without the buttons rotating…
One way to prevent rotation would be by using a square shaft on the button, going through a square hole in the case cover. Or notch the shaft and attach pins to the underside of the cover, somewhat like the Borel patent which did the same with a leaf spring. Or the hexagonal buttons could be close enough together that the flat planes engage with the adjacent buttons. Those are just some ideas off the top of my head-I am sure there are many other options.
May I ask what you are planning to use for keys?
Regards
Shannon
Hi Shannon,
thanks a lot for your thoughts and suggestions!
I thought about a square shaft too, and at the moment it seems to be the best solution to me. But I also like your second suggestion. The third thing wouldn’t work because I would be planning on constructing a melodica with different levels per row.
BTW, I don’t know how to get hexagonal buttons, maybe I’d have to construct them myself. My life doesn’t depend on them anyway, I merely want to give it a personal note, and it’s also meant as a reminiscence to a man that I knew who was the first to build Janko system accordions and who used hexagonal keys (he called it “honeycomb system”).
Greetings, Quetscher
Hello Quetscher, have you considered using aluminum, brass or stainless steel bar stock. You can cut to size and the tapped or drilled for the post. They can be polished to a mirror or chrome finish. If weight is an issue you can hollow the back and fill with a resin or epoxy to reduce weight.
just a though.
Melodica-Me
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