Second Style Pooley Victrola Fun, warped panels et.
Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2018 11:29 am
I bought this Victrola about a month or so ago and I knew it had some loose veneer on the sides, but of course these things often turn into a WAY bigger mess than you think they are going to, and this one has not disappointed me in that way and in some ways is the 'gift that keeps on giving' Haha!
You can see in the first pictures that I had it out in the pool and washed all the finish off. Of course, the veneer wasn't actually loose anymore because someone 45-50 years ago sort of glued the one side back down leaving a big hump in the center with white glue, and then on the other side they got out "liquid nails" for those of us old enough to remember that stuff. Maybe they still make it, I have no idea about that. My Dad LOVED that stuff to put paneling up with and I don't even think it did a very good job of that. It took a few days with the paint remover and a heat gun to get that stuff out from under the veneer. And then of course the core wood is warped, so now I have the side panel knocked off so I can get that flat again. I don't know what it is with me and Pooley made cabinets, but they are all problematic as far as I'm concerned. They must not have used quarter sawn lumber for the core wood. The veneer was loose on the front doors as well, and there is a HUGE knot under one of those panels that's about the size of a 50 cent piece! I've never pulled the veneer off a Victor made cabinet and found stuff like that under the veneer, but I also haven't gotten this far into too many Victrolas as they usually just aren't worth this much work to sort out. If Pooley had captured the bottom edge of the plywood with a rabbit, it may have kept this from happening, but it's hard to say. The dowels are a sign of less than wonderful construction as far as that goes too. But, it's just where things were in 1909 and I'll do what I can to sort it out. I've never really junked out one of these, so I'm not sure if Victor did the cabinet construction differently on this style cabinet. Victor, in all honesty, was kind of lazy about finishing the parts you couldn't see and this machine sat somewhere that was really damp for a very long time. It's pretty unusual to find a Victrola that doesn't have loose veneer on the bottom of the cabinet.
So, I figured some of you guys would get a kick out of this project and it is interesting to see how these things are constructed. It will take me some time to get that panel flattened out so I can re-set the veneer. I might have to glue something on the back side to help stabilize that part of the panel, but I'll have to figure that one out once this panel is flattened out. Fortunately, it's at the back behind the record storage area so a repair like that wouldn't show. Hopefully, the other side isn't like that. I'll roll the thing over later today and see how it's doing. If you had to hire this done it simply wouldn't be worth it. I hope I don't have to make a new side panel for it and move the old veneer over to it. That's not exactly a simple ordeal either as I'm sure anyone looking at it can figure out. Oh well, these huge ordeals make me think twice about taking any more projects on, that's for sure. But I guess they keep me out of trouble. Maybe...
You can see in the first pictures that I had it out in the pool and washed all the finish off. Of course, the veneer wasn't actually loose anymore because someone 45-50 years ago sort of glued the one side back down leaving a big hump in the center with white glue, and then on the other side they got out "liquid nails" for those of us old enough to remember that stuff. Maybe they still make it, I have no idea about that. My Dad LOVED that stuff to put paneling up with and I don't even think it did a very good job of that. It took a few days with the paint remover and a heat gun to get that stuff out from under the veneer. And then of course the core wood is warped, so now I have the side panel knocked off so I can get that flat again. I don't know what it is with me and Pooley made cabinets, but they are all problematic as far as I'm concerned. They must not have used quarter sawn lumber for the core wood. The veneer was loose on the front doors as well, and there is a HUGE knot under one of those panels that's about the size of a 50 cent piece! I've never pulled the veneer off a Victor made cabinet and found stuff like that under the veneer, but I also haven't gotten this far into too many Victrolas as they usually just aren't worth this much work to sort out. If Pooley had captured the bottom edge of the plywood with a rabbit, it may have kept this from happening, but it's hard to say. The dowels are a sign of less than wonderful construction as far as that goes too. But, it's just where things were in 1909 and I'll do what I can to sort it out. I've never really junked out one of these, so I'm not sure if Victor did the cabinet construction differently on this style cabinet. Victor, in all honesty, was kind of lazy about finishing the parts you couldn't see and this machine sat somewhere that was really damp for a very long time. It's pretty unusual to find a Victrola that doesn't have loose veneer on the bottom of the cabinet.
So, I figured some of you guys would get a kick out of this project and it is interesting to see how these things are constructed. It will take me some time to get that panel flattened out so I can re-set the veneer. I might have to glue something on the back side to help stabilize that part of the panel, but I'll have to figure that one out once this panel is flattened out. Fortunately, it's at the back behind the record storage area so a repair like that wouldn't show. Hopefully, the other side isn't like that. I'll roll the thing over later today and see how it's doing. If you had to hire this done it simply wouldn't be worth it. I hope I don't have to make a new side panel for it and move the old veneer over to it. That's not exactly a simple ordeal either as I'm sure anyone looking at it can figure out. Oh well, these huge ordeals make me think twice about taking any more projects on, that's for sure. But I guess they keep me out of trouble. Maybe...