On the bench.

July 20, 2026

New Slider Windchests

We're beginning the next phase of construction on three slider windchests for two upcoming projects: Our Opus 3 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and an upcoming project in Richmond, Virginia. Two of these windchests will utilize mechanical action, while the third will be electro-pneumatic.

Construction begins with a butcher-block slab, sized to the full footprint of the windchest, followed by table, grid, slider, and pallet skin construction.

Next: each layer will be sandwiched together and prepared for drilling.

June 30, 2026

Console Assembly

We're in the final stages of assembling the console for First United Methodist Church in Miami, Florida (Opus Two). Our team is carefully thermoforming and polishing the acrylic panels that will form the transparent shell of this console. Because every interior component will remain visible once installed, we've given special attention to the layout of each component of the control system inside.

April 10, 2026

Stop Rails & Stop Tablets

Construction continues on the console for First United Methodist Church in Miami, Florida (Opus Two). The stop rails sweep in a graceful curve, crafted from sapele. The stop tablets, made in our shop from bird's-eye maple, are laser-engraved with a custom font inspired by the 1930s New York City subway typeface.

Also pictured: the assembled knee panel and platform, fully detachable from the console shell for easy access to the relay during maintenance. No more crouching and reaching between stiles to access wiring! Additionally, with this design, one person can access the relay and press a key at the same time.

March 3, 2026

Custom Bolster Rails

Here, we're crafting custom curved bolster rails for the console of First United Methodist Church in Miami, Florida (Opus Two), to house the toe pistons and mount to the knee panel. Made from butcher-blocked sapele, the rails were blocked at an angle to follow the sweep of the final curve once installed. The work required complex compound curves, cut on the bandsaw set at an angle.

January 28, 2026

Console & Pedal Board Frames

Work continues on the console frame and the frame for the pedal board for First United Methodist Church in Miami, Florida (Opus Two). We fabricated a large steam box with an internally mounted PVC steam manifold to disperse heat and steam evenly, used to curve layers of sapele for the pedal board frame. We're also making final adjustments to how the keyboard jambs relate to the console frame.

September 29, 2025

New Swell Shades

This week, we completed the in-shop installation of a new swell shade front for our Opus 2. The shades are made from butcher-blocked basswood (also known as linden) — a lighter wood than poplar, chosen to allow smooth, simultaneous movement across all 36 of these two-inch-thick shades.

July 18, 2025

English Tapered Shallots

Here's a look at part of our process for making a 16-foot set of English tapered shallots. The brass is first annealed to make it more pliable, then curved using a series of tapered mandrels soldered together at the top and capped. The faces are milled to a given aperture size before a final polish.

May 30, 2025

Windchests & Walkboards

We're continuing the initial shop setup of our new instrument for First United Methodist Church in Miami, Florida (Opus Two). Work so far has included leveling the floor frame, followed by placement of the legs and bearers — made from inch-and-a-quarter-thick poplar — and then the first windchests and walkboards. The walkboards featured here have large openings that will soon be covered with hinged doors, providing access to the slider motors for the adjacent large slider windchest still to come.

April 16, 2025

Final Slider Chest Assembly

We're in the final steps of slider chest assembly for First United Methodist Church in Miami, Florida (Opus Two): vacuum-pressing the pallet skins to the grid and table assemblies, cross-hatching the table and toe boards by hand with a router, installing the large support frames to the base of the slider chests, and finishing.

January 9, 2025

Electro-Pneumatic Slider Chests

Work continues on new electro-pneumatic slider chest construction for First United Methodist Church in Miami, Florida (Opus Two). We're completing the glue-up of the grids, which contain the channels for each note on the chest, and assembling the sandwich of grid, table, phenolic sliders, and toe boards — after which we'll spot-drill the toe holes. We're also building several offset unit wind chests using electro-pneumatic action, many sharing central rails for more efficient use of space. As with the slider wind chests, the toe boards are built from butcher-blocked poplar.

December 12, 2024

A New Facade

In partnership with Thompson-Allen Organ Builders of New Haven, Connecticut, we're designing and constructing a new facade for St. Paul's Memorial Episcopal Church in Charlottesville, Virginia. The organ is a 1926 E.M. Skinner (Opus 597), being restored by A. Thompson-Allen.

October 14, 2024

Console Restoration

Work is underway this week toward restoring the 1967 Holtkamp pipe organ for St. Christopher's Episcopal Church in River Hills, Wisconsin. The console is being completely refinished after decades of wear, and the keyboards and pedalboard are being fully cleaned and re-bushed.

June 18, 2024

A Casework Replica

We're continuing the shop setup of our new instrument for Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Shawnee, Kansas (Opus One). Pictured here is the original impost moulding for the organ — which, along with the pipes, was the only surviving component of the original instrument: a 1916 Hook & Hastings organ (Opus 2371). Using this moulding and a single low-resolution photograph, we reconstructed a faithful replica of the original casework.

May 17, 2024

Gold Leaf Stenciling

This week, we're stenciling the facade for our new instrument at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Shawnee, Kansas (Opus One), using gold leaf. The church opted for a subtle but beautiful stencil design featuring Good Shepherd symbolism on the largest facade pipes. Underneath the gold leaf, a deep red underpainting adds warmth to the finished stencil.

April 22, 2024

Console Nears Completion

At long last, we're finishing the new console for Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Shawnee, Kansas (Opus One). While entirely new, the console draws inspiration from early-20th-century Hook & Hastings designs, featuring carved corbels and organically ebonized jambs.

March 14, 2024

Ebonizing the Console

This week, we're finalizing the keyboard jamb positions on our new console for Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Shawnee, Kansas (Opus One). Part of this work involves ebonizing the key cheeks, piston slips, and drawknob jambs. We made our own ebonizing solution in-house using steel wool and distilled vinegar — after soaking for just over a week, it reacts with the wood's natural tannins to produce a rich, ebonized finish without the use of any dyes. This darkens the wood naturally while still letting the grain show through beneath a clear coat.

February 22, 2024

A Modern Music Rack

What do you do when you love the scroll-sawn designs of early-20th-century music racks, but also want a flat surface to write on? This piece, made for Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Shawnee, Kansas (Opus One), is a replica of an early-20th-century Hook & Hastings music rack. The original would have been scroll-sawn all the way through, leaving open holes — but we wanted a monolithic surface instead. So, we routed the design by hand, partway into the depth, then ebonized the recesses and filled them with a clear coat. The result is a completely smooth surface where the original Hook & Hastings design is still honored.

January 30, 2024

Console Coming Together

The new console for Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Shawnee, Kansas (Opus One) is coming together. We're adding carved corbels to visually support the drawknob jambs, building the jambs themselves, and placing the console panels into the frame.

December 11, 2023

Leathering the Pouchboards

Leathering has begun on the many pouchboards that will be housed inside 16 offset unit electro-pneumatic wind chests for Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Shawnee, Kansas (Opus One). After drilling, the pouch boards have been submerged in shellac to ensure that each pouch and channel is individually sealed — preventing any leaking across notes.

November 12, 2023

Vintage Pipework Restoration

The pipework for Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Shawnee, Kansas (Opus One) spent over ten years stored in pipe trays in a barn, and in many cases has suffered some deterioration. In this rank, many of the pipe bodies had completely fallen apart, requiring significant restoration. Each body is carefully cleaned and re-glued, with wooden pins inserted to help prevent future delamination, and areas of larger damage have been replaced. Throughout, every effort has been made to retain the original construction and as much of the original voicing as possible.

October 10, 2023

New Windchest Frames

We're completing new frames for all of the unit wind chests for Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Shawnee, Kansas (Opus One). These rabbeted frames are channeled to allow the pouchboards to exhaust, then submerged in shellac to seal the channels. Also shown here are the toeboards for the slider chests, which have been channeled and finished.

September 19, 2023

Custom Shallots

Here's an inside look at some of the less common shallots we produce. First are a set of clarinet shallots, made with a teardrop aperture cut on a small CNC machine; the faces are soldered to the shallot bodies before polishing. We also make tin-faced shallots — cut on the CNC from an alloy of tin and lead, then soldered to a brass face plate that allows the wedge to be inserted securely without compressing over time.