Victrola Orthophonic wrecked finish

dennman6 · Post by **dennman6** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 5:16 pm

Microtrol wrote:It's a VV 8-12

Oh, please do post your progress when this one is done. That is my favorite Orthophonic model after the Credenza & the 8-35! And then comes the Granada:) Good luck to you on this project.

Microtrol · Post by **Microtrol** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 10:53 pm

Ok, here are some pics or the unit. More on my photobucket page,

http://s1179.photobucket.com/albums/x38 ... VV%208-12/

SignatureSeriesOwner · Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:09 pm

That one photo of the black speed control area is throwing me off. Clean all the dist off, and see what you have to work with. Aside from the speed control and whatever is going on with the tonearm, it looks quite nice.

Microtrol · Post by **Microtrol** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:27 pm

The speed control is actually poly euothaned stuck, but the needle to the right is actually under the finish coat slathered on. I agree as I couldn't let this victrola get parted out because of the finish fault. I think I'm going to go with a new lacquer finish after the strip.

Victrolaman · Post by **Victrolaman** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 12:00 pm

What you have is a Victor 8-12. a very nice machine i have one of these, it was also called the Baby Credenza, has a very nice full rich sound. The finsih on the tone arm is supposed to be dark, they has what was called a antique bronze finish on there, as to why anyone would paste it down with poly, who knows. What i would do is clean it up good, have the reproducer rebuilt, easy to do, if your mechanicaly inclined you can do that yourself, id try to save the original finsh, Gojo hand cleaner will clean that up well, buy some new quality grill cloth and you have a wonderfull machine there. Make sure you reseal all the joints with grease to in and around the horn flange in the back, tighten the screws to the flange back there, be carefull thats pot metal and steel, the potmetal is very unstable, seal all the cracks if any in the wooden horn, this machine needs to be airtight to produce good base and sound. If you need any help, send me a personal message and i can walk you through it. Very nice machine the 8-12 was. I wouldnt trade mine for anything

De Soto Frank · Post by **De Soto Frank** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 12:47 pm

Nice machine. I have my Great-grandmother's VE 8-12 that was retrofitted by the factory or dealer to a four-spring motor.

Did they poly-glop the underside of the lid too ?

This is a nice-playing machine; the horn is a tad smaller than a Credenza, but they still play very nice.

All metal hardware should be dark-patinaed (almost black).

Keep us posted.

Henry · Post by **Henry** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 2:59 pm

All 8-12s were walnut. I once had a chance to acquire one and passed, but that's another story. It was a one-owner job and in apparent good shape, but the (pot-metal)) sound box was stuck fast onto the gooseneck and I foresaw problems there. But I don't remember that the metal hardware was "almost black." It was gold (or gold-toned), not shiny bright, dull but not real dark. I have good reason to believe that this machine had not been cleaned or polished in a long while, if ever.

De Soto Frank · Post by **De Soto Frank** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 5:02 pm

SignatureSeriesOwner wrote:That one photo of the black speed control area is throwing me off. Clean all the dist off, and see what you have to work with. Aside from the speed control and whatever is going on with the tonearm, it looks quite nice.

Aside from the ploy-glop finish, the speed control is correct for this machine.

They did not have the "speedometer needle".

I use a paper strobe disc to check speed now; before that, I stuck a bit of white paper under the edge of a record and counted revs against my watch...

SignatureSeriesOwner · Tue Sep 27, 2011 5:09 pm

I'm aware that the speed control is correct, just the fact that entire area of the machine looks BLACK, and the rest of it looks nice and shiny.

De Soto Frank · Post by **De Soto Frank** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 7:39 pm

I think the black around the speed control is a combination of dirt in the old finish and the lighting of the photo... it looks like there are plenty of crumbs under the poly...

Henry's comment about gold finish on the metal parts inspired me to take some photos of my 8-12, which is un-molested, aside from my attempts years ago as an un-informed teenager to polish-up "the tone-arm that had obviously tarnished to black"

... that's the explanation for the goldish parts... the bit near the back-bracket, between the top pivot and the ball-bearing where I couldn't reach with the polish is the original metal finish.

The piano-hinge for the lid, the motor-board screws, and the clips for the Tungs-tone stylus tins are the best examples of the original dark metal finish... under most room lighting it looks black... The lift-knob on the motorboard is a generic box-store replacement for the missing original.

The reproducer is a pot-metal Orthophonic, with a nickeled cover (9-slot).

I do have a VE 7-11 radio-phono that has original gold-tone finish on the Orthophonic soundbox and taper-tube... probably the same finish that Henry is referring to.

( Sorry about the dust and dirt inside the machine and lousy flash-on-camera digi pics !

)