Question on aluminum Columbia tone arms.

[Jerry B.]

Has anyone attempted to re-plate a Columbia tone arm that has a bad nickel finish? I've removed the old nickel and polished arms on occasion and they look great but an authentic restoration would require a re-plated arm. Jerry Blais

[tinovanderzwan]

aluminium can be polished and buffed to a showroom shine no need for re-plating
the shine on alu, is a beautyful high silvery shine sometimes allmost like chrome

im a smoker so i save all my siggy ash in a big pot to cure (it must be a pot with a tight lid)
the curing time of ash is about a month be sure to crush it and siff it before putting it in the pot crushing and siffting will prevent big particles in your ash polish
the curing will chemicaly alter the ash one of the compounds present after curing is amonia a very common substance in sertain liquit polishes amonia breaks up rust and it will desolve and remnove fatty materials like handgrease and oil residue

for use just take a cloth and make it wet wrince slightly and dab into the ash and aplie to the surfage of the object in need of polishing and rubb

its cheap it works and as a bonus its better for the inviroment

and on aluminium it works like a charm

greetings
tino

[Jerry B.]

Thanks Tino, I will polish the aluminum instead of re-plating. Jerry

[Henry]

Is there something magical about tobacco ash, or will ordinary wood ash do as well? Why not just use ammonia on a cloth, straight out of the bottle?