Started on the Roberts Bestone

[alang]

I also want to congratulate you to your very detail oriented work to bring this unusual machine back to working and more than just presentable condition. Like JerryVan, I also enjoy reading about your inventive solutions to unusual problems. Please don't think you're boring your readers, these are the stories that many of us can geek out on.

Andreas

[Lah Ca]

Thank you to everyone for their encouragement.

Today I went out and bought some paint to deal with the cardboard and rexine repair job.

I looked at the colour of the rexine and thought that raw sienna would be the closest standard stock colour. I bought a small bottle along with some black and white for adjustments.

Here is a first coat, dried.

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I mixed in a little too much black. I didn't need the white. But I should have bought some red, too. The rexine has bit more red in its raw-sienna-ish brown than what I have ended up with. The finish is also a bit too matte. I will need to look for a bit of clear coat to apply extremely sparingly.

For comparison:

[Inigo]

it's a very beautiful machine... and looks very well.

[Lah Ca]

I got a much more exact colour match by mixing in a bit of red with the raw sienna and the black. I also improved upon the appearance by making the colour non-uniform, taking different mixes from my little paper pallet and lightly putting extremely thin and very spotty coats over the solid base. Examined very closely, the rexine is no longer (or perhaps never was) entirely uniform in colour. I then finished by doing the same kind of coat with tiny amounts of pure raw sienna which would then mix with residual pain [Edit: ironic typo -- should read paint] the in the brush.

In some light conditions the repair is not visible now unless one knows it is there and looks very closely.

The problems now are differences in texture and light reflection.

Texture I don't think I can improve upon. The area was so badly damaged, and it strongly resisted reassembly. If I had a chance to do the repair again, I would do it slightly differently and better, but it is what is now.

Light reflection I can probably address with carefully applied thin and (micro) spotty coats of a sealer or clear coat, making the light reflection of the repaired area more similar to that of the old rexine.

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[Damfino59]

It’s amazing what determination & elbow grease can accomplish.

Well done

[An Balores]

And a bit of creative ingenuity!

[JerryVan]

Any updates??? Is this now completed???

[Steve]

I wondered if this thread was resurrected so it isn't lost amid the multiple threads about early 102 serial numbers!

Please give us an update on this genuinely uncommon and interesting machine. It looks good so far!

[Lah Ca]

I wondered if this thread was resurrected so it isn't lost amid the multiple threads about early 102 serial numbers!

Please give us an update on this genuinely uncommon and interesting machine. It looks good so far!

Nothing to update so far.

The project has been placed on hold. But definitely not forgotten.

Nice weather has changed my focus from indoor things to outdoors.

I have been rebuilding the fencing around my housing. The 20-year-old plus western red cedar was looking quite weather beaten and damaged, and there was some rot starting in various places. The workers building the new house next door damaged some panels and posts by leaning heavy things up against the fence.

And then there is the extensive garden, which is largely my wife's thing, but I am called upon to do the grunt work of digging, building new beds, hauling soil and mulch, etc. etc.

There was also a trip north to deal with various long protracted things relating to my mom's estate and a road trip with my brother.

Busy. Just not with phonographs.

[Lah Ca]

Rainy day today, so I worked on the machine a little.

I removed the temporary felt washers that I put in to isolate the motor from the motor board, replacing the flattened-pancake-like and chalk-like-fragile-but-hard black rubber things that were original. The exterior edges of the original washers where they were not squashed between the top plate of the motor and the motor board showed that they were initially 1/8th" thick.

I put in the new natural gum washers that I cut. They are the wrong colour, but they work quite well. They seem to reduce the transmission of motor noise to the aluminium motor board better than the felt ones--this could be just my imagination, however, since I can't do an A/B comparison easily or quickly. They also make it much easier to set platter clearance from the motor board while maintaining tension of the retaining screws since they are springier than the felt.

There are three screws that retain the motor, one on the left, one in the back, and one on the right. If they are tightened right up all to the same degree the platter will rub on the motor board during play.

It was a total PITA getting things set up well with the felt washers--disassemble, adjust, reassemble, and test, disassemble, re-adjust and re-test, etc.

With the gum washers in place, I just tightened up everything quite tightly to the same (perceived) tension and then backed the back and the right screws off a full turn, lowering the right side of the motor slightly, and then everything was good, No rubbing. Motor firmly and securely mounted with good mechanical isolation from the motor board.

Nothing to take pics of. Sorry.