Home Model B follow-the-restoration.

[VanEpsFan1914]

The case is structurally sound, the lid is filled & stained (as is the base, now back on the cabinet.)

Mr. Duffy sold me a very nice restored horn by Standard Metal--original paint, fully redone brass. He also talked me into ordering the hobby's usual reference books and getting ready to join the APS. Cool.

Well, that is one major part found and it is beginning at last to look like a proper phonograph. The connector tube & reproducer are borrowed from the Fireside, and I'm hanging it from the floor lamp, but this is just a mockup to get an idea what the Home will look like when it's nearer completed. Looks pretty sharp, I think; after testing the new horn on the Fireside it sounded pretty great too. Nice balanced tone, and proportional to the phonograph cabinet. Perfect.

[AmberolaAndy]

You did great Charles!

I’ve been so nervous to improving the appearance of my machines beyond putting Goop cleaner on them. I need to buy clamps for making cases structurally sound.

[fran604g]

Very nice resurrection Charles. Your hanging the horn from a floor lamp reminded me that many years ago, that's how we had done it - at least for a short time.

Our Home B came from my wife Sharon's grandmother's basement rec-room. It had been Sharon's great grandparent's presumably from when purchased new in 1906. The horn had been hung from the basement ceiling by a chain (as I still use today).

There were several floor lamps also in grandma's home, a few which were missing parts and quite old. One "bridge" lamp was exactly the correct height for the Home on a particular side table we had. Bingo! Home run (pun intended)! Or whatever your favorite declaration for success may be.

I've since restored that lamp to it's original simple "gold" elegance, and use it daily.

Fran

[VanEpsFan1914]

@AmberolaAndy we aren't done yet. This is just the beginning. I still have finishing to do, cosmetic overhauls, etc. It also needs its motor repaired and I dread to think of how that's going to turn out. Yes, do get some clamps. Also, if you have a floor model that's wobbling, check to make sure the legs are screwed on! I think those legs work loose a little.

@fran604g -- I'd seen the pictures of your family's Edison Phonograph (which is the one built into a custom cabinet if I remember right?) and those are what gave me the idea to hang the horn from some random furniture! I'm glad you were able to restore your lamp, though.


I was recently able to sell some stuff and that gave this project and a few others a much-needed boost. As I'm busy a lot, or too worried to do something, I end up spending much of my time on this project just staring at it wondering what I'm fixing to do next.

Well, more to follow.

[nostalgia]

Nice to read and see the process of this restoration, VanEpsFan. I know absolutely nothing about Edison machines, so this is also a good way to learn more about restorations on such machines. Thank you for sharing the progress and process, and good luck with the rest of the restoration

[VanEpsFan1914]

@nostalgia I'm glad you enjoyed it; I've always liked the restoration threads you do and continue to be impressed at the way you've overhauled some of those machines.


The restoration is at a bit of a pause--I will be gathering more spare parts before continuing--decals, mechanical pieces, and all that. It really needs help before it's ready to go and I am finally getting back in control of life for awhile so things should go smoother.

But right now I'm in the process of putting a proper finish on the case. It's taking a lot of work especially as I only work on this in spare moments. I took the finish & instead of just a couple coats of shellac I am doing many coats of very thin shellac rubbed on and then buffed smooth after it dries. This is keeping it from getting too dark, and keeping that "antique shop" look out of it, which is where a lot of my restorations in the past had run into problems. There's also a gap in the wood I believe was there from the factory; a chip of wood fell out & was lost. I will have to re-fill that with new wood. Won't be too hard at all. I want to ensure it is as nice as possible.

Pardon my dust on the table; I was packing a box to ship to someone & those clingy bits from styrofoam take forever to pick up. But anyway this is just a little looksee at how everything will go. This is only half the finish--I want to do about six or eight more coats, maybe ten--and buff/sand in between each one. It takes awhile to do this but the results are promising--and slick too!

It will be interesting to get it running again; I like the Home motors as they look like a kinetic sculpture or some miniaturized piece of Industrial Revolution factory tooling. Unfortunately the look of the big open pulley will change as I'm going to swap out for an aluminum one, but that's for longevity of the machine itself and for performance.

View from above. Aware that the corner braces are not yet re-glued. I have them in a box with some of the mechanical bits.

(EDIT-- I just sourced an original crank & a set of replica decals.)

[VanEpsFan1914]

A set of Gregg Cline decals arrived and I put one on the case. Looks sharp, as usual--Gregg Cline's phonodecal.com is a real asset to the hobby & Mr. Cline himself is a square dealer.

The bedplate is still wearing about 94% original japanning but I've touched it up with some black model paint. That didn't dry as glossy as japan so I washed over it with some cut amber shellac and got some very good results. I've since added the Thomas A Edison trademark label to the front of the bedplate and must do the pinstriping which will take some time as it's much more complicated than trying to pinstripe a Standard or a Fireside. The bedplate looks properly rough--lumpy and streaked and whatever--because of the original finish. People forget how handmade these things looked, compared, say, to a Columbia BK Graphophone. (I want another Graphophone one day--another classic BK, or one of the little tiny BV/Oxfords. The Lyric is a great reproducer.)

A proper vintage crank for it should arrive today and this project will be slowly coming back together. It still does not run, but now it is actually looking nice enough.

Remembering we started with this--
--yes, I don't think this is too terribly bad.

[VanEpsFan1914]

Just ordered a mainspring barrel to give it some power again.

[VanEpsFan1914]

The project just took a big leap forward with the arrival of a Paul Baker replica Model C, purchased from a gentleman on the Forum. It sounds like a new reproducer--and it is, built by a master hand. The new diaphragm is lively and well-rounded played through the horn I have for this machine, so I am pretty happy with the match. And the mainspring arrived & I installed it--but I will probably have the motor apart a few more times to tamper with it.

Now:

• find an on/off switch
  add a crane
  and a belt
  and put all the screws back
  and find a governor kit to rebuild it
  and swap the damaged 19-tooth gear
  and find a couple tiny, tiny screws that are missing

Hopefully at the end of all that the Home will be ready to roll. Call me a phonograph couples counselor because there is nothing I like better than fixing a broken Home. There are a few delays holding up the project as right now I'm swamped in college, in the middle of a move (salvaging books, papers, my old pump-organ, and all that) but the Home is looking like it will be one of my better restorations.

Ordering parts is always a weird thing--I know I need them but I never get any sense of urgency about getting them.

[VanEpsFan1914]

Sorry for the blurry cell phone picture.

There is still a Tupperware full of parts in the desk that need to go back on this phonograph, so I will have to see what I can do. It's an interesting mess. But having a spring helps, and having both the C and the H reproducers helps as well!

It is going to be very rewarding when this crazy thing finally fires up & plays, considering I dragged it home as a pile of restoration bones in October 2020. This is the 13th month of this project and it's followed me from South Carolina to Connecticut without being anything like a functioning record player. Hopefully I can get it ready to go shortly--but I've been saying that for how long now?

The vacuum cleaner parts in the back are not affiliated with the Home restoration in any way. An advisor at the college had a friend with a broken vacuum cleaner and I had to fix it. That took all of 5 minutes. The new model vacuums had some unusual locations for the filters, and it had clogged up & started overheating--easiest fix in the world but not the most intuitive.