I have a Hammond organ. I have had it since my dad moved it from his garage to my house in Connecticut. Before that it had been in my grandparents house. I used to play it occasionally in Connecticut as did my wife. But since we have lived here, it has been played maybe once. My wife re-arranged the room that it is in about 8 years ago and the speaker cable got disconnected and it has not been powered on in all that time.
Tonight, my son, 17, decided that it needed to be played. We had tried it a couple of weeks ago and knew that it was stuck. The oil had dried out and it was not turning when the start switch was on. Tonight when his friend was here, they picked it up and moved it out a bit from the wall. I took the back off and loosened up the rotor shaft. The start switch would get it to turn but it would not run. I got some light oil and put it in the oil cups. It dripped down the tubes and into the wicks. Still no go. We went and did something else for about half-an-hour. Now it ran but the bearing was still a bit noisy. After a minute of playing, it settled down and was quiet. Phillip played it for about an hour trying various combinations of drawbar settings. Quite exciting. This little bit of machinery and electronics was made sometime between 1935 and 1940. The predecessor of the Hammond B-3. We need to make sure that we play it often and that we oil it with the proper Hammond Oil next time.