Cleanup and restore of a Columbia Viva-Tonal Grafonola 128a

[nostalgia]

I want to congratulate on this marvelous job, Antonia.

I love to see when a Columbia machine is saved, restored and worked on this way.
The photos also remind me very much of the very similar work I have taught myself and made during the last
year on some different machines, also some floor models ( Victrola, HMV 145, Odeon etc)

Next up for myself , is doing a very similar work on a Columbia 156A ( console model) that came my way last summer. It now occupies a big part of my small living room, but is next up for service and restoration. I have hesitated for some time to start working on it, since it really needs some major attention, but now it cries for help, so the work will start very soon.

It shines through that you really have enjoyed doing this restoration work, and you also can be proud of the resul ! Your wonderfully detailed text and photos will also be uses as inspiration in my own work on my Columbia.

Martin

[Antonia E]

Thank you so much Martin!

[Inigo]

Antonia, congrats for the nice job. About the crack at the top, maybe you could dig a bit on the pink filler, removing it only, say, half-depth, then refilling it with a better suited wood product which admits refinishing. If you proceed with caution, less is better than more, I don't see why you couldn't be successful. The top refinishing could leave the war wounds pretty invisible. Or you could decide on a less aggressive action, simply reinforcing the crack repair, and refinishing, but not trying to hide the crack out. I'm lately becoming come off this approach : cleaning, servicing, reinforcing the machine wounds for gaining endurance, and making slight reversible modifications for the best possible machine performance. This includes slight modifications or adjustments on the soundbox for better diaphragm performance, small elbow adaptors or wedged rubber joints, added for tracking corrections, etc. A final waxing for clean and nice looking, giving the appearance of a very old machine which has suffered from aging, but which has been cared for, and which performs at its best. Thus, you see a clean aged machine which sounds beautifully.

[Antonia E]

Thank you so much Inigo!

That’s good advice re the filler and I will give it some serious thought. Oh incidentally, I found your posts here on rebuilding the Meltrope III very useful when I rebuilt my own sound boxes This forum really is a great community for sharing information in pursuit of the care of this wonderful machines