The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This is the link to the original post, started when I was looking for information about the cabinet.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=43072&start=0

This new post will be about my progress in its refinishing.

This is how I found it and the beginning of its stripping. These full views are after several rounds of stripping. Just prior to taking the pictures, I wiped it down with lacquer thinner to enhance the grain. To my surprise, it is a very fine figured wood. And the door is especially nice. I spent some time on the internet and could not find a similar wood to match the door. It and the sides are similar to Maple, but several woods have figuring like this. Whatever it is, it sure is purdy!


The back panels of the cabinet have shrinkage issues. Today I began to assess and tackle them. They shank from right to left and split due to the nails holding the moulding. They are solid boards about 3/16” thick. I was very careful not to slop any of the old surface into the splits.

I started on the larger lower section, where the center of the moulding was pulled as the panel shrunk. I had to severe the nail by filing it. It now fits against the edge.
Moving to the bottom corner. I thought the wood was missing and am happy to report that it was only held back by a nail!
With this positive experience, I moved to the small upper section and removed two sections of moulding and filed a nail on a third moulding. I was then able to slide the panel over. I’ll continue this post as I move along.

James.

Nice progress on this beautiful cabinet. Well done on the split panel.

Thanks for sharing!
Andreas

Very nice work, nice to see this coming back to it's former glory.

Did you glue the cracked board together while in place by leveraging it ??? Tom

Tom, I have not glued it yet, but that is exactly how I will glue it.

My next challenge will be the top surface. In the fourth picture from the top you can see the issue. The wood has split and bowed-up. I still need to examine its construction and devise a plan.

Thanks for all of the positive reinforcement.

James.

The top surface of the cabinet is bowed and cracked. It was attached with eight nails. Using a mallet, I tapped the underside make a gap and then filed through the nails.

I watched a few youtubes on how to flatten warped wood. I used an iron and steamed the underside of the board. It worked well enough and I’m happy. With a slightly flatter overall surface, the diminished cracks were glued and clamped a few days later. The following photos are before and after. I also glued the panel splits shown earlier. Later I will strip off the varnish that shows and re-attach the trim. James.

I bought a another brand of stripper and removed more stain and varnish that was left behind from the other brand. Also steamed-out some dings with good results. Gave it a sanding. Still have a bit more fussing to do before I move on.

Today I was a manicurist. The paws had four missing toenails, three in the front and one in the back. After prepping a flat surfaces to for them, I shaped them to fit, and glued them in place. The front paws are pictured. James.

Looking very nice. It's obvious you are going to great effort and the results are positive.

Jerry B.

You are going into great detail especially on the paws. Little things set off a good restoration. Tom

Well, it's been many months since I provided an update on this project. It is coming along well, even after having had my frustrations over it.

I needed to strip several times to get the blotches out of the wood. I also gave it a an good sanding. I needed to fill a few dings and minimize a scrape on one side panel ... I've settled on it being a pine, as seen in this reclaimed lumber page.
https://oldfloridalumber.com/our-wood-1

I looked at many youtube channels and settled on this product to inhibit blotching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfCYMdrP8rM
https://charlesneilwoodworking.3dcartst ... redirect=1

I used a medium brown water based dye stain from General Finishes, as recommended above. I do not have a sprayer, so I wiped it on. It's very dry in Tucson and it dried faster than I could work. This was my frustration. I was able to use an airbrush to get the color even.

Now the carved panels needed planning. That's were I will leave this update. I'm not ready for the unveiling yet. Here's a tease of the stained wood with the unstained carving. You'll see my vision for it taped to the wall. The stain will be applied with the airbrush and some fine brush work. James.

PS: I finished both panels and they look very close to my plan.