Follow the Restoration - Victor M

[JerryVan]

I am really enjoying this thread. More yodeling, please! I think Franzl Lang is of the best and Melanie Oesch one of the prettiest. Yeah, I really do like yodeling!
Dave D

Dave,

Got any other skeletons in your closet?

[Mr Grumpy]

Part 5a: The Sad Case

I thought I'd give a quick update on the case, this will probably be a three part series as
it will take quite bit of work to get this complete.

For now I'll post some before pictures of the sad condition of the case.
You should probably keep this youtube video playing while you look at the images
to provide some background to what you're about to see.
Turn your speakers up, hit play, and scroll down slowly. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vodd6C5ryUU[/youtube]


Before dismantling...

Before Case1.JPG (90.27 KiB) Viewed 1380 times

Before Case2.JPG (81.05 KiB) Viewed 1380 times

Before Case3.jpg (138.96 KiB) Viewed 1380 times

Before Top2.JPG (294.17 KiB) Viewed 1380 times

Before Top3.JPG (335.6 KiB) Viewed 1380 times

I removed the bottom board carefully to access the bottom molding,
quite a bit of old glue made it obvious that this had been taken apart before.

Case_Dis_Before4.jpg (241.34 KiB) Viewed 1380 times

Case_Dis_Before3.jpg (242.57 KiB) Viewed 1380 times

Case_Dis_Before2.jpg (321.88 KiB) Viewed 1380 times

Case_Dis_Before1.jpg (287.3 KiB) Viewed 1380 times

I'll have to call upon all my special abilities to revive this old girl.



Wish me luck!

and if you need entertainment, there's 10 hours of sad violin in that video you clicked on...

[Dave D]

You seem quite capable so I hesitate to offer this, but I have had great luck removing old glue with steam. I modified a Scunci steamer and use it remove the old caning on chair seats with pressed in cane. I also used it to remove the Elmer's glue that was used to do a nasty looking repair on an old cuckoo clock top carving. I was able to remove all the old Elmer's glue and do a proper glue job on the clock.

confidential to Jerry Van: I have Lederhosen, but the waist is too small. I wish I could play accordion. I once ran with scissors in school...

[Mr Grumpy]

Thanks Dave, steam is a brilliant idea, wish I'd read this sooner.
Of course I've already ruined my fingers removing the glue with a razor blade.
In my lifetime I've single handedly put all the children of the President
of the Band-Aid corporation through college.

(mutilated-handedly to be precise)

[STARR-OLA]

This looks like a terribly fun bunch of parts to assemble,its awesome!

[JerryVan]

confidential to Jerry Van: I have Lederhosen, but the waist is too small.

Maybe that steamer could do some good?

[Curt A]

confidential to Jerry Van: I wish I could play accordion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpmDAu_47OE

My personal favorite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2O5gZmmvXA

[Curt A]

China's top accordion player:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fKvsZ_NdWo

French cafe accordion music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6BuZOYboZM

[Mr Grumpy]

Part 5b: The (basket) case continued...

After cleaning up the glue and dry fitting the bottom molding I'm feeling Great!



I thought that the giant gaps in three of the mitered corners were due to shrinkage
(maybe exposed to cold water for too long ).
I figured I'd have to put the pieces on a humidifier or steamer and then refinish the pieces
because of the water damage, but it looks like it was just down to poor assembly from the
last person who tried this.

Using blood, swear words, Grappa, and clamps...

Case_After_Glue_Clamp1.jpg (330.18 KiB) Viewed 1254 times

Case_After_Glue_Clamp2.jpg (329.54 KiB) Viewed 1254 times

The three corners that had giant gaps turned into more acceptable gaps...

Case_After_Glue1.jpg (280.59 KiB) Viewed 1254 times

Case_After_Glue2.jpg (255.43 KiB) Viewed 1254 times

I then moved on to the top which was actually split in two pieces but held together
by the braces underneath.

Before

Before Top4.JPG (320.44 KiB) Viewed 1254 times

I used the motor plates and braces to re-align the two sides.

First one side...

Top_after_glue3.jpg (340.53 KiB) Viewed 1254 times

Then the second (with glue)

Top_after_glue.jpg (326.62 KiB) Viewed 1254 times

Then Clamp (not as much blood and swear words, but liberal amounts of Grappa)...

Top_after_glue2.jpg (322.05 KiB) Viewed 1254 times

I'm sure the eagle-eyed have noticed the brass pan screw showed up again.

Pan_Head_Before.jpg (320.41 KiB) Viewed 1254 times

I took care of this one!







I'll polish and nickel plate it after the Grappa wears off...



Work will continue on the case, until then, I leave you with 10 hours of the national anthem
(Nyan cat style)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxUP6kaswMg[/youtube]

[Mr Grumpy]

Part 5c?: An Unwelcome Surprise

When I realized that refinishing the cabinet wouldn't be required I was
quite pleased, but then...



I began arranging all the pieces of the corner columns and found that one of the fluted pieces had
a large sliver of wood removed from one side of it. In the picture below you'll see that each column
has two sides, the first slightly larger than the second. In this case, because the piece was damaged, they were both
the same size.





So I contacted a good friend of mine who's a restoration expert at the Museum in Cairo Egypt and he recommended
LIBERAL application of epoxy. Luckily I had some epoxy putty on hand so I followed his advice.





The angry collector looking on in disgust...



When the putty was hard but still slightly flexible, I carved it into shape with a razorblade



A few more of these...




Once it was completely cured, I used a dried up eraser as a block to sand it into shape (220 grit, then 400)




Then, armed with an airbrush and a very fine artists brush, I applied some toner and then grain with
some oil based paint. It'll need a light coat of shellac for the correct sheen, but the case still
needs to undergo a thorough cleaning before that happens.




Until the next installment, please enjoy a Youtube video of my last pong tournament which I won.
(unfortunately this game was 10 hours long) [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeEFMhdnR6c[/youtube]