Last year the chapter obtained a financial grant from national ATOS to replace the two existing blowers supplying wind to the organ with a single, more powerful, blower.  While the orginal system served us well, it had the shortcoming of being incapable of maintaining adequate wind pressure under certain conditions.  Moving to a single blower solution will remedy this problem and have the side benefit of reducing the overall complexity of the wind supply.

The original blowers were removed in March by members Hassell Moores and Bill Carr and the main blower was shipped to blower expert Bob Otey in Washington state for rebuilding.  It was anticipated that the blower swap would be completed in about a month's time, but has suffered delays due to Otey's other committments.

The photo above shows two of  the blower's fan blades under construction in Otey's shop.  Once  the rebuild is complete, the blower will be shipped back to Phoenix, reassembled, and reinstalled in the blower room under the Orpheum Theatre's stage.  The boosted wind supply will make it necessary to re-regulate and completely tune the organ.  The organ was last tuned for Desert Winds back in 2008. 

An empty blower room awaits a new blower