Triumphon floor gramophone needing some help

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nostalgia
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Triumphon floor gramophone needing some help

Post by nostalgia »

I took pity on this small, light weighted Triumphon gramophone last week. I actually restored a different Triumphon floor model last summer, and when spotting this machine I thought, why not.
I think it has a single spring motor, because of the weiight, the previous Triumphon had a double spring motor. I found the double spring motor very good, noiseless, sturdy, and easy to service, and hope this one
will prove similar, when I remove it.
The dood knobs are missing, but the main problem is the big deep scratch/crack on the top of the lid. I am not sure how to handle this. What would you do yourself? Add wood filler and try to match the wood grain? Buy a veneer board and glue it on top, or do any other ideas come to mind?
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epigramophone
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Re: Triumphon floor gramophone needing some help

Post by epigramophone »

The exterior of the cabinet is much lighter than the interior, which suggests that it has been stripped of it's original finish. If that is so, you have nothing to lose by filling the damaged area and refinishing the cabinet to match the interior. When it is darker the repair should be almost undetectable.

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nostalgia
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Re: Triumphon floor gramophone needing some help

Post by nostalgia »

Maybe the exterior has been refinished in the past ( or not), if so...it must have happened three generations ago, since the machine has been in the same family all the time. The owner said neither he nor his parents had ever used it, and that it had belonged to his grandparents. Remembering the sellers age, that should bring us back to the 1940's, at least.
Here is the thread, where I showed photos of the first Triumphon I restored, as we can see, it also has different wood types/finishes on the exterior and interior, also before I stripped the darker wood on the machine, the lighter wood was never touched.
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=45601&p=271678&hil ... on#p271678

This time I will definitely not strip this machine. When you say refinishing Roger, are you talkign about staining it? The problem I earlier had with stripping top lids and adding wood filler, is that it is always impossible to make it look good, the wood filler will always shine through, particularly on such big cracks as we see here.

I have restored a few HMV table grands, and I admit, that I last time sanded down the motor board on a 109, since I earlier never had been able to make it look decent around the tonearm area where the soundbox and needle hits the wood. The scratches found here was always very ugly when opening the lid. However, on the last 109, applying Liberon dark oak spirit dye, and adding a few drops of a black leather paint to the mix made me reach the very close to exact color of the original finish on the 109, before adding liquid shellack politure/ wax.
.............
Update: I now actually think it has been stripped, looking in the upper corner of the side photo, we can see a darker shade, like the interior.
I will refinish the exterior, working to make it look close to the interior, this way it will also be easier to hide the crack on the lid too, as you say Roger. Back then someone must have cleaned it with a liquid stripper to make it look brighter, maybe not enjoying the dark color, or make it match the rest of the interior in the sitting room etc.

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Marco Gilardetti
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Re: Triumphon floor gramophone needing some help

Post by Marco Gilardetti »

nostalgia wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 5:49 amUpdate: I now actually think it has been stripped, looking in the upper corner of the side photo, we can see a darker shade, like the interior.
Yes indeed. That obviously looks the sign left by an eccentric grinder, which, having a circular sandpaper strip, can't reach recessed corners.

People tell all kind of lies when it comes to sell things and grab money. Assumed (with a great exercise in trust) that this gramophone really belonged to the seller's family for generations, it is then absolutely obvious that the seller himself or any of his relatives rehauled the exterior of the gramophone at a point in time, altering its original colour.

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Re: Triumphon floor gramophone needing some help

Post by nostalgia »

This was a very friendly buy, more of a charity than a purchase really. The owner was very positive and told openly the gramophone had been with his parents since he was a kid, stored in the attic, and they had never used it at all during his life span. It had belonged to his grandparents, and my guess is that they at some stage have sanded it down to meet the colors of the furnitures in the sitting room, or...have tried to remove severe scratches on it. He did not try to hide anything, really...up here people of his age, are rarely trying to hide anything when selling an old gramophone. We are often called naive up here, and maybe we are, but the nature of the people here are still in general, and in particular with elder people, very friendly, and lies are rarely told when buying second hand items.
I paid € 20 for the machine, I think I also could have had it for free, because money was not really an issue here, the couple were happy I would have it and try to save it from the scrap yard, and I wanted them to have € 20 for it, since it had been in the family since the man's childhood. I was visiting the area to pick up a Columbia 204, and the machines were only 4 km apart geographically, so it was a win win really.
I will start working on it in the spring, it feels good to save it from ending nowhere. It has a nice size too, not heavy at all, and someone out there will easily be able to make it fit into a small room and use it as starting machine, as well as be able to use it as a nice furniture.

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Re: Triumphon floor gramophone needing some help

Post by Inigo »

20€ for a gramophone? :mrgreen:
Inigo

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nostalgia
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Re: Triumphon floor gramophone needing some help

Post by nostalgia »

:oops: ...yes...

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Marco Gilardetti
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Re: Triumphon floor gramophone needing some help

Post by Marco Gilardetti »

OK money grabbing was definitely not an issue here :D most probably the folk honestly didn't know or never really realized that the cabinet was rehauled at a point in time! :rose:

Cute little machine by the way, I'm glad it found a new home! There has been some conversation lately (to which you possibly also participated in) about this type of gramophones featuring a deliberately small conical horn, and it was interestingly speculated that there possibly was a market driven by families that didn't like loud music but preferred a more soffused sound.

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Re: Triumphon floor gramophone needing some help

Post by Inigo »

Yes, I moved it somehow. I've always been intrigued by these German small horn gramophones... :)
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