The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

The good thing about a machine is that you really can't hurt it at this point...

Good luck with the project...

I have a fairly ugly Home B that I thought was beyond [feasible] repair...

Maybe I'll have a go at it after all...

I just bought a heavy duty Edison horn crane that was rusted and pitted as bad as your machine. After several hours of disassembling each part and cleaning rust off with a wire wheel mounted to a motor spindle, the majority of the rust came off. The pitting was removed using a belt sander and the metal looks great. I will now proceed to polish each part with a buffing wheel and compound and it will end up looking like it was re-nickled.

Just take your time with the restoration and remove all parts and clean them individually. Motor shafts and gears should be polished after cleaning and I actually like to polish all parts. If you want to age them (for example you don't want shiny screw heads) you can treat them with Birchwood Casey Super Blue liquid gun bluing. Just clean the parts with rubbing alcohol to remove oil and grease, then use a paper towel or small piece of cloth dipped in the bluing and wipe the pieces until they turn dark. Then spray them with oil or WD-40 to stop the process and protect them from re-rusting.

TIP: After polishing (buffing) parts using polishing compound, WD-40 is good for removing the remaining compound from the polished parts. The compound is kind of waxy and will prevent the gun bluing from working...

One more thing regarding reverse electrolysis - you need to use a battery charger that is not a "smart" one that only provides a trickle charge. You need a charger that can be set to a specific amp setting, OR you need to connect your electrolysis parts directly to a 12 volt battery and then use a trickle charger to keep the battery topped off...

Anything can be restored if you want to invest enough time, money and effort into it. I wouldn't want to put that much into that particular machine, but go for it if you want to do it. There's a lot to learn and a lot of satisfaction to be gained.

Jim

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