The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I like the walnut machines. Not the most detailed grain since it's a low cost model. This one cleaned up nice. I use NewLife products. A bit pricey but to me worth it. The masque really cleans of the years of grime. The conditioner finishes it off as you can see in these picts.

Goop helped refresh the surface of the wood quite a bit. The white streaks shown in the photo of the side of the cabinet are now gone. The lid is actually quite a bit darker than shown in the photo above. I think the owner tried to make the water rings less noticeable by putting some kind of darker stain on the lid. I've Gooped the lid 3 times now and I just keep getting brown stuff coming off it. I got some Barkeeper's Friend to use on the lid, also some Howard's Restor-a-Finish in Walnut. I plan to remove the lid from the machine, protect the side panels with something waterproof, then follow the advice given above to remove the stains. After that I'll let it dry thoroughly for a couple of days before using the Howard's.

The motor was running very irregularly, even getting to 100+ rpm at unpredictable intervals. I did what I could with the speed control, then wound it up fully and let it unwind about 10 times. That (and a few drops of oil) gave it enough of a "workout" to get the speed back to normal and stable. The motor could still use a proper cleaning, but it's not urgent.

Photos soon.

I haven't been able to update this for a while because the previous owner of the machine had to send me part of the leg that came loose while moving it. I only got that back a day or 2 ago. Now that it's all together again, I've had a chance to work with it.

First the lid. I took it off and used plastic wrap and masking tape to protect the sides. I put a fair amount of water on the lid, but a lot of it beaded up. I shook some Bar Keeper's Friend onto the lid and scrubbed a bit with a plastic brush, adding a bit of water as I went to make sure the wood was staying wet. (There was some kind of badly applied shellac(?) in a thin coat with very rough brush strokes.) I let that soak and wiped it off and 75% of the stain was gone. Then I did a second treatment, on the stains only, and allowed it to stay on for 15 minutes. I removed it and wiped it down with wet paper towels to remove any remaining chemicals, then wiped it dry and allowed it to dry thoroughly. I sanded it very lightly to remove the last traces of the bad "shellac". Once that was done, I hit it with Howard's Restor-a-Finish in Walnut.

Here's the lid before, and after:




The rest of the machine just got hit with Goop and Howard's. Here's the side before and after:




You'll probably comment on the color of the wood darkening from the Howard's, and that's somewhat true, but the photos greatly exaggerate the change. The before pics are in mostly strong natural light and the afters are in room light. I wouldn't say it was like new, but it's a pretty nice machine now.

Thanks again to all who offered comments and assistance.

Superb restoration of the cabinet. Congratulations!

Wow, a world of difference! Very impressive.

Nice job. I'm sure the color looks even better in person. I know that different lighting can have that effect.
How is the motor board area? Keep us posted with more picts

I took this one of the motor board area at the same time of the others but didn't post it because I didn't really have to do much with it.