Restoration Of Mills Coin Operated Phonograph
Posted: Mon May 27, 2019 11:42 am
Greetings Boys and Girls! Lori and I are in the middle of a big project at this time, and felt it would be a great thing to share with fellow collectors.
It began with the purchase of an unrestored 1928 Mills Hiboy phonograph, from an auction in October 2018. See the first photo below. Upon arrival in the following January, we took a detailed inventory in what was there, and learned that the machine was mostly complete, but suffering from some loose and damaged veneer, poor finish, distorted and swelled pot metal parts and an accumulation of grime and dirt both inside and outside. The wood issues are not too big of a deal to me, but the pot metal parts initially seemed like there would be a huge expense to have them remade by a machinist. Along with the machine was supposed to be a box of extra parts, which did not arrive with the machine. After a call to the seller, they agreed to send the box separately as it had somehow been accidently missed from the shipment. While waiting for that box to arrive, Lori and I tore into the machine to begin cleaning and saving whatever we could and working to re-glue the lifting veneer along the bottom edge and around the windows. (A syringe filled with diluted Elmer's Carpenter's Glue was very useful to get the glue under the loose layers of veneer.)
While the glue was setting up, I began to check the electrical system, first looking at the credit/coin system. To my disappointment I found the pot metal plate which had held the accumulator wheel, several relays and the run switches had disintegrated into several pieces. Some of the parts had fallen off completely, and the whole thing was being held together by the remaining parts. See the second photo. (Lori suggested the boy with the hatchet had tired of destroying the Standard and so found a new place to go.)
Okay, likely we’ll never find a good plate, so fabricating one out of brass seemed like the best way to go. After cutting up rods and blocks, and soldering them into the proper locations on a piece of cut-to-shape 3/16” plate, then drilling and tapping as necessary, we managed to piece together a new plate. Picture number three shows the completed assembly installed in the machine.
The fabrication of the plate took several days, enough time for the veneer repairs to dry thoroughly. We found that in a couple of spots the veneer did not go down to its original level, flush to the surface. Using an old iron on medium setting, I applied heat and pressure to those spots and that solved the issue. Some of the veneer chips were filled in using this “Iron Down” method also.
This story will be continued in few days as more progress is made.
It began with the purchase of an unrestored 1928 Mills Hiboy phonograph, from an auction in October 2018. See the first photo below. Upon arrival in the following January, we took a detailed inventory in what was there, and learned that the machine was mostly complete, but suffering from some loose and damaged veneer, poor finish, distorted and swelled pot metal parts and an accumulation of grime and dirt both inside and outside. The wood issues are not too big of a deal to me, but the pot metal parts initially seemed like there would be a huge expense to have them remade by a machinist. Along with the machine was supposed to be a box of extra parts, which did not arrive with the machine. After a call to the seller, they agreed to send the box separately as it had somehow been accidently missed from the shipment. While waiting for that box to arrive, Lori and I tore into the machine to begin cleaning and saving whatever we could and working to re-glue the lifting veneer along the bottom edge and around the windows. (A syringe filled with diluted Elmer's Carpenter's Glue was very useful to get the glue under the loose layers of veneer.)
While the glue was setting up, I began to check the electrical system, first looking at the credit/coin system. To my disappointment I found the pot metal plate which had held the accumulator wheel, several relays and the run switches had disintegrated into several pieces. Some of the parts had fallen off completely, and the whole thing was being held together by the remaining parts. See the second photo. (Lori suggested the boy with the hatchet had tired of destroying the Standard and so found a new place to go.)
Okay, likely we’ll never find a good plate, so fabricating one out of brass seemed like the best way to go. After cutting up rods and blocks, and soldering them into the proper locations on a piece of cut-to-shape 3/16” plate, then drilling and tapping as necessary, we managed to piece together a new plate. Picture number three shows the completed assembly installed in the machine.
The fabrication of the plate took several days, enough time for the veneer repairs to dry thoroughly. We found that in a couple of spots the veneer did not go down to its original level, flush to the surface. Using an old iron on medium setting, I applied heat and pressure to those spots and that solved the issue. Some of the veneer chips were filled in using this “Iron Down” method also.
This story will be continued in few days as more progress is made.