Interesting Idea For Blue Amberols?

[FellowCollector]

In many years of collecting cylinders I occasionally encounter Edison Blue Amberol cylinders that have split all the way through as is seen in the pictures below.

This morning I had a thought as I was looking at them just before considering tossing them out as I've done in the past.

For many years I’ve retained a number of plaster-less or near plaster-less Edison Blue Amberols that are in otherwise fine playing condition primarily because they are titles that are interesting and hard to find. One in particular is an Edison Blue Amberol by Teddy Roosevelt that I would enjoy listening to even though I already have another nice copy of it.

So here’s my idea. I’m thinking that if I peeled the celluloid skin off one of these that are split revealing a good plaster core and then carefully removed the bottom celluloid rim on the Teddy Roosevelt cylinder that I could deftly slide the good plaster core inside the plaster-less Teddy Roosevelt cylinder thus making it playable. Has anyone ever tried this? Perhaps it would require a little light sanding of the plaster core to fit nicely but it seems like it could work. Maybe adding some mild liquid adhesive to enhance sliding it in while assuring it remains secure inside the skin?

What do you think?

Doug

[Jerry B.]

How about filling your plasterless cylinder with wet plaster and using a mandrel to shape the damp/wet plaster. Would you need to do the entire inside at once or could you do it 50/50 over a couple of days? A Home mandrel with shaft would give you something to grab and turn. Once dried you could use a reamer to get rid of any excess plaster. (Maybe save the Roosevelt cylinder until you've perfected the process.

Jerry B,

[FellowCollector]

How about filling your plasterless cylinder with wet plaster and using a mandrel to shape the damp/wet plaster. Would you need to do the entire inside at once or could you do it 50/50 over a couple of days? A Home mandrel with shaft would give you something to grab and turn. Once dried you could use a reamer to get rid of any excess plaster. (Maybe save the Roosevelt cylinder until you've perfected the process.

Thanks for input, Jerry. Good suggestion. I've thought about that as well but how to extract the mandrel after the plaster dries. Maybe wrap the mandrel in saran wrap or whatever so it could slide out after the plaster sets. Definitely worth a try on a test cylinder.

Doug

[pallophotophone]

In many years of collecting cylinders I occasionally encounter Edison Blue Amberol cylinders that have split all the way through as is seen in the pictures below.

This morning I had a thought as I was looking at them just before considering tossing them out as I've done in the past.

For many years I’ve retained a number of plaster-less or near plaster-less Edison Blue Amberols that are in otherwise fine playing condition primarily because they are titles that are interesting and hard to find. One in particular is an Edison Blue Amberol by Teddy Roosevelt that I would enjoy listening to even though I already have another nice copy of it.

So here’s my idea. I’m thinking that if I peeled the celluloid skin off one of these that are split revealing a good plaster core and then carefully removed the bottom celluloid rim on the Teddy Roosevelt cylinder that I could deftly slide the good plaster core inside the plaster-less Teddy Roosevelt cylinder thus making it playable. Has anyone ever tried this? Perhaps it would require a little light sanding of the plaster core to fit nicely but it seems like it could work. Maybe adding some mild liquid adhesive to enhance sliding it in while assuring it remains secure inside the skin?

What do you think?

Doug

Along time ago at Belfer, I developed a process of using old standard size wax home recording blanks -with nothing on them to destroy- and turning them down on a shaving machine until the celluloid ends of the record would just meet. Trial and error sure, but shaving a very minute amount of wax with each pass yielded good results. The amount of shrinkage of the celluloid is not consistent. And sometimes the ends of the celluloid would curl outward. I was thinking about that when I retired, but the seed of a solution is still there. Most of the split celluloids didn't suffer from curl. I secured the celluloid sheet with a piece of audio recording splicing tape, which does not bleed adhesive or stretch, in the dead celluloid areas.

I did the wax core replacements with Edison and US Everlasting.

It could also be done with old cut down 6 inch dictation cylinders. But I had a good supply of otherwise unusable home record blanks to work with. All of them had the cloth reinforcement in them so they would not fly apart during the turning process. Slowing down the motor with a variable transformer on the shaving machine would fix that too, since some home blanks do not have the cloth reinforcement. That is my experience with them.