Were Edison cylinder bedplates coated with shellac?

[jboger]

A few weeks ago I got an Edison Standard Model B at auction that was/is very dirty. The motor has been cleaned and works fine. It's the bedplate that I am now concerned with. Very dirty and covered with grease, stubborn grease. I tried soap and water, which turned the surface--which should be a shiny black enamel--whitish. I tried a solvent called xylol, which is very good for all sorts of grease. It worked with some effort. Turned my Q-tip black such that I thought I was removing the black enamel. But no, I had tested it on a clean spot, the part that holds the reproducer, and it did nothing to the enamel there. Nor did the soapy water. However, I just discovered that ethanol (denatured alcohol), which is a solvent for shellac, takes off the gunk leaving the nice shiny black enamel intact. Now, remember I had used xylol and had some success removing the gunk. But xylol doesn't work on shellac. Ethanol does. Am I removing a final coat of shellac with the ethanol or am I removing years of dried bacon grease? I'm confused. Perhaps shellac was applied to protect the gold striping, which by the way seems to be nearly all gone (not removed by me). Any of this make sense? John

[jboger]

I believe I can answer my own question: No, Edison cylinder players were NOT given a final coat of shellac. There was dried grease everywhere, even on the rods that support the reproducer.I guess the previous owners felt the machine needed a lube job once a week.

[martinola]

Hi John.
I'll have to disagree with you on this. In my experience Edison bedplates (at least the Standards and Homes I've dealt with), all had shellac as a protective top coat. I'm pretty sure this was to protect the decorations. Good luck with the Standard B!

Regards,
Martin

[jboger]

So it looks as if I removed all the shellac. That is easy to put back, but doesn't seem to be much of a need if all the pin striping is gone. I'm pretty sure I did not remove the pin striping. and I'm not saying that to make myself feel better if I had. I looked pretty thoroughly and did some careful test cleaning. Edison's name is still intact as I did not clean the shellac there as I wanted to be more careful in that region. Even so, about a third of his name is gone.

It would make sense to restore the shellac if the pinstriping can be replaced. Is this worth doing. And is there a thread on the forum that I could read. Ecept for the pin striping, the surface does look quite good.

John

[Le0]

So it looks as if I removed all the shellac. That is easy to put back, but doesn't seem to be much of a need if all the pin striping is gone. I'm pretty sure I did not remove the pin striping. and I'm not saying that to make myself feel better if I had. I looked pretty thoroughly and did some careful test cleaning. Edison's name is still intact as I did not clean the shellac there as I wanted to be more careful in that region. Even so, about a third of his name is gone.

It would make sense to restore the shellac if the pinstriping can be replaced. Is this worth doing. And is there a thread on the forum that I could read. Ecept for the pin striping, the surface does look quite good.

John

the pinstripe can be redone... Greg Cline has some nice stuff.
just look here to have an idea of what his decals look like: http://forum.talkingmachine.info/search ... greg+cline