Columbia G-208 portable (Japan)

[nostalgia]

I finished the restoration of this portable. What is there to say, the internal horn is very thin, I glued together the broken parts, and installed a spring from an old HMV 102, since the spring was broken (Thanks Soundgen for telling me what spring to use, and thank you again to Oedipus telling me that this spring moves to the left, instead of right as on the HMV 101/102.) I did not remove the governor on this motor, since I read it can sometimes be tricky to reinstall it, anyway..if the motor had been very dirty I would still have removed it, but the motor was not too bad really, so thorough cleaning with XD 40 and regreasing/reoiling did the trick. Thorough cleaning also of the case with Swarfega, the covering material feels different than the one used on early ( and later) HMV portables, easier to clean, but also more stiff and brittle on the corners, as seen on this machine. No spare covering material was found inside the case, I could have removed bits around the support area for the tonearm, but chose not to do it, since it would have left the same area uncovered. Also, I am not so sure it would be easy to transfer the material, since it appears really brittle and easily breaks when bent. Instead I left the ugly corners for now, took some photos, and in the unlikely event a similar machine ever will turn up of the same color, there is still a job to do on the machine. Using shoe cream appears difficult, because of the multi colored texture. Anyway, what could be glued is glued, and the gramophone is saved from oblivion, and is functioning well as it is now. I update one photo, and regards this job as finished for now.
Yes, the winding key is rusty, it was forgotten during the work today. it will however be treated tomorrow morning, before packing the portable away for now.

[poodling around]

I finished the restoration of this portable. What is there to say, the internal horn is very thin, I glued together the broken parts, and installed a spring from an old HMV 102, since the spring was broken (Thanks Soundgen for telling me what spring to use, and thank you again to Oedipus telling me that this spring moves to the left, instead of right as on the HMV 101/102.) I did not remove the governor on this motor, since I read it can sometimes be tricky to reinstall it, anyway..if the motor had been very dirty I would still have removed it, but the motor was not too bad really, so thorough cleaning with XD 40 and regreasing/reoiling did the trick. Thorough cleaning also of the case with Swarfega, the covering material feels different than the one used on early ( and later) HMV portables, easier to clean, but also more stiff and brittle on the corners, as seen on this machine. No spare covering material was found inside the case, I could have removed bits around the support area for the tonearm, but chose not to do it, since it would have left the same area uncovered. Also, I am not so sure it would be easy to transfer the material, since it appears really brittle and easily breaks when bent. Instead I left the ugly corners for now, took some photos, and in the unlikely event a similar machine ever will turn up of the same color, there is still a job to do on the machine. Using shoe cream appears difficult, because of the multi colored texture. Anyway, what could be glued is glued, and the gramophone is saved from oblivion, and is functioning well as it is now. I update one photo, and regards this job as finished for now.
Yes, the winding key is rusty, it was forgotten during the work today. it will however be treated tomorrow morning, before packing the portable away for now.

How will you 'treat' the rusty winding key tomorrow I wonder ?

[nostalgia]

First, I will try Autosol, metalpolish. Normally it works well. If it does not work well, I will soak the handle in Evapo-Rust, since I also have a bottle of this product at hand.
For cleaning the turntable felt on both HMV and Columbia portables, I am now using Vanish spot remover (spray), leaving it on for 10 minutes, before rinsing the dirt off under the sink. HOWEVER, if somebody want to try this take caution when drying the felt. It takes time, myself I am using a hairdryer while spinning the turntable. BUT leave the felt to dry overnight. I learned the hard way, dried the felt, and "felt" it was dry, and reinstalled it on a HMV 101 portable, BUT...the felt was not dry, and small particles of Vanish most probably was left on the turntable, because the next day when testing the gramophone one last time before finishing the job, the turntable had made a whitish imprint inside the lid, that was impossible to remove. The turntable of the HMV 101 is when lid is closed pushing against the lid, and this caused the imprint. More thorough rinse of water, and even more drying, (also overnight) would have most probably have avoided this problem. ( Will be retested soon on an old scrappy HMV 101, used as a donator)