FOLLOW THE RESTORATION: all that glitters is not gold...yet!

[edisonclassm]

Wyatt,
I challenge you to keep an accurate accounting of the time you put into the restoration of this machine and report back to everyone when you have finished. Also the expenses. That will show people what it takes to restore one of these hard to do machines.

[MicaMonster]

Wyatt,
I challenge you to keep an accurate accounting of the time you put into the restoration of this machine and report back to everyone when you have finished. Also the expenses. That will show people what it takes to restore one of these hard to do machines.

Edisonclassm, You bring up a valid point. This type of work is not fast work. It isn't quick, nor something that just anybody can tackle without several years of experience under their belt. This next posting is an example of this. Today I am tackling one of the worst glue repairs in the history of glue repairs. Someone in the past 30 years (estimated) encountered this machine, and decided to glue the motor frame back together with wood glue. This would have been ok, if it was done right, but instead they didn't line up the joints, or clamp the wood properly. So, this is what I have to contend with. The glue is harder than the mahogany, so guess what breaks first? And this is just ONE corner. The other 3 were just as bad. Using a straight razor and a wood hammer, I had to crack the glue apart, and carefully remove all of the bad glue. This leads to wood loss, and the need to fill in the missing splinters of mahogany before sanding off the original finish and leveling. I use fish glue because it's strong, allows you to reposition the parts being glued and isn't permanent like urethane glue. I did the metal cleaning first because I wasn't looking forward to this particular part of the restoration. I take time to meditate and think things through first before tackling jobs like this. Less chance for making impulsive mistakes. 24 hrs for glue to harden! The cabinet itself has one (really, only ONE?) bad glue joint, which I have decided can't be split open and leveled. I will need to sand the lip off of it and fill the gap with threads of mahogany glued in. Splitting the wood would only damage it further, and it is on a back corner which is less noticable. The lid has several missing bits of veneer......I'm probably going to strip the veneer as it is alligatored like a 60's handbag.

[MicaMonster]

It's that time.....breathe in....breathe out. Time to strip the finish. Just to prove I'm not bonkers, here is a photo of the existing alligatored finish. It's bad. And the lid chips aren't small. In situations where there are difficult to cover cracks or gouges, I use a curved wood carving tool to clear out the gouge, then using the same radius cutting tool....cut some filler strips from a piece of scrap mahogany. Syringe some fish glue into the area, and start filling with strips of mahogany until just above the repair. Then put down a piece of plastic and a flat piece of scrap wood, and CLAMP IT FLAT.

[Phono-Phan]

Thanks for posting this thread. I am truly impressed with your restoration skills. I can't wait to see the end result.
Ken Brekke

[Lenoirstreetguy]

Wyatt: Love this. You need a reality television show. I'd watch every day. Working on two machines would work even better because we could, say, root for the Triumph over the Class E .

J.R.T.

[MicaMonster]

I'm one of those people that keep pieces of old wood and 100yr old veneer around, just in case, Pictured is one of my fave repair tools..... a kerf razor saw, I'll use it to cut off that piece of chunk scrap mahogany filling in the gap. The cabinet and motor frame were ready for some finish. 180 grit sanding, 220 sanding, then two applications of Behlen Medium Brown Mahogany stain (my weapon of choice for Opera and Amberola 1-A machines), and a base coat. The ribboning in the orig mahogany is spectacular.

My most hated job is filling in curved pieces of missing veneer on Edison lids. Makes me lose sleep.

[EarlH]

You really do nice, and thorough work. Most people have absolutely NO idea about how time consuming all that detail work can be. I really like the Behlen dyes for finishing, especially the mahogany colors. Have you ever used their "Blood red"? I used that on an Amberola 1A cabinet I refinished for someone earlier this summer and that color really worked well for it. And it was also a good match for this flat top Victrola I'm in the middle of. I've always used the Medium Brown Mahogany before, but for some reason on the Edison, it wasn't quite right. I've never really found a color that's a good match for those purplish colored diamond disk machines made in the later teens, but I really don't want to re-finish one of those either.

My Dad used to have an old friend of his that did furniture repair work and he kept 8-10 old electric clocks in his shop with the names of the people that he was doing work for. When he was working on something he would plug in the clock and unplug it when he stopped. He said that was the only way he could keep track of the time on everything. I always thought that was a pretty good idea, but I've never done it. I rarely do work for other people because they usually want it done a week after they drop it off. And I do have a 50-60 hour a week job in real life!

Your machines really look great. It's SUCH a misery to undo what previous clowns have done to some of this stuff and try to get it straightened back out. I passed an Edison A-275 a few years ago because they had let the lid fly off the machine while moving it, which would have been bad enough. But then they nailed all the broken off pieces of wood back on with an air nail gun and these 2" long wire nails that were impossible to get pulled out. After the guy drove about 200 of those into the back of the lid screwing up all of the inlay on the back of that, they did the same thing into the back of the cabinet where the hinge pulled part of it apart. I said something about the repair and since he thought I was impressed and then went on to tell me about being a high school shop teacher for nearly 35 years. And you mentioned in one of your earlier posts about honest repair skills becoming a thing of the past.....

[MicaMonster]

Here is my technique for doing lid chips. I rough cut the veneer and fit HALF of it, and glue it in position. After it dries I cut and shape the 2nd half with a Dremel sanding barrel or X-acto knife then tack that down with glue and a clamp. Sounds easier than it looks!

Here is a pic of the lid after 1st coat of finish. NOT DONE YET!

[Curt A]

Love it... thanks for all of the tips...
Curt

[MicaMonster]

3 springs re-greased, motor cleaned up