Missing latch on Columbia 160. What to do?

[Marco Gilardetti]

Thank you once again to all those who took time to reply! I feel relieved, knowing that the decisions that I have taken while carrying out this rehaul have a wide consensus.

Did you have to apply new leatherette on the box? where did you find one like the original - a kind of wood grain pattern ?

No, I didn't. I don't know any source of a reasonably similar material, and also the embossed decorations would have been impossible to replicate. I simply revamped what remained of the original frabrikoid with black shoe polish, brushing it while wet to imitate the "wood grain pattern" as you say, at least to some degree. It is far from a perfect imitation, but it's also not so terrible and as a result it is barely noticeable in picture.

One thing I found interesting was your comment that in your experience, woodworm was a rare thing in portable machines. Here in England, it's a very common occurence. I have scrapped more machines through severe attacks of woodworm than anything else. In my experience, Columbia machines seem to suffer from it far more than any others. Fortunately my 113 and two 113a models are not affected!

I think this is easily explained by the fact that, first of all, I don't really own a huge number of portables but just some units, and secondly that only recently I bought two Columbia machines. So it's really too much a small sample to draw any conclusion, perhaps it was just a sensation that I had. In general, woodworms don't like plywood as much as they like the solid wood with which tabletop or floor machines were made, and in most cases plywood is also anti-woodworm treated, but again this is not a general rule. Storage conditions and also luck plain and simple play a major role with woodworms.