first attempt at re-felting a turntable

[Sansenoi]

I'm not offended in any way, it's just that the felt, although looked solid on the surface, had dry rotted for some reason. After taking the suggestions to wash it rather than refelt from a previous post of mine, I tried to gently wash it and it fell apart and metal showed through in many spots. The 10" line in the felt had a ½ inch metal gap in it after washing. That's why I refelted. The before picture in this post was taken before I tried washing it. After the wash, there wasn't much to photograph.lol

I wonder if in 100 years people will be looking at the turntable I refelted in 2012 and ask the same forum questions as to refelting?

[Henry]

Please don't be offended but I think the old felt looked pretty good. I would not have taken it off.

I'm with Sansenoi. The old felt was obviously toast, not worth saving, and detracted from the value and the appearance of the machine. The right course was taken here, without a doubt.

[Sansenoi]

One thing I noticed while washing it was the old, green felt grit and glue powder running out was like abrasive sugar sand. After feeling that stuff I would have refelted even if it hadn't fell apart due to the fact that that I wouldn't want that stuff getting in the grooves of my records.

Perhaps a good indicator of wether or not a re-felt should be done is if after wrapping a TT upside down on some white paper, if there is a lot of fine grit refelting should be done to preserve records played on the TT. Rinsing it out may be fine for a while but if the felt and glue is breaking down at a significant rate it will just become a problem again in short order.
Just my thoughts on it though.

[HisMastersVoice]

Maybe I'm way off base here but I've always had good results buy just spraying a contact cement or glue on a square piece of felt. Flip the turntable and stick it on top of the felt. After a few minutes it will be dry enough to take a straight razor (preferably new) and using the turntable edge as a guide, slowly, using a up and down sawing action, cut off the excess felt. I usually angle the blade a little toward the center to make a slight tapper on the felt edge. The cutting should always be on the down stroke.

Now take a felt pen and mark the center where the spindle hole indentation is.

Next I take a capenters nail set and heat it with a propane torch. It is tappered so it can accomodate different size spindle holes and it will self align. Stick the hot nail set through the mark you made with the felt pen and wa-la.

Total time 5 min. No muss or fuss. LOL

Your done...

Blizz

PS be sure to use vise grips or something similar to hold the hot nail set. You will only make that mistake once..

That's what I do, except I just cut the spindle hole out with the tip of an x-acto knife.

[Valecnik]

Please don't be offended but I think the old felt looked pretty good. I would not have taken it off.

I'm with Sansenoi. The old felt was obviously toast, not worth saving, and detracted from the value and the appearance of the machine. The right course was taken here, without a doubt.

Hmmm... Again, it's just me but I would say you are just half right. The old felt might detract from the appearance for some but the old felt would add to the value, at least if I was the buyer.

[Sansenoi]

When it comes to who is right about refelting it is part the restorer and part the buyer, I think. All comments on this post are right in their own way.

If one restores a machine with new parts there are people who appreciate a fully restored machine that looks pristine mint. There are also buyers who want a machines that look as if they haven't been touched up in 100 years and would rather have a machine in less than new looking/working order if its condition preserved some sentiment of yesteryear to them.

There are enough buyers of each preference, old looking and new looking, at the moment to service the wallet of each type or restorer's preference in what to replace and what to keep.

I guess the reason of refelting came up to me personally is that I just didn't like the condition of the felt and, from the comments from both sides of the fence, I see I may have been able to find a buyer before I refelted and one after I refelted.

I'm happy with the job and if some day I feel that I did a poor job I'll try again with a new technique or new material. One thing I can't do is get back the original felt and that part of my machine was gone as soon as I tried to wash it. Most of it went down the sink drain.

I think if one restores talking machines as a investment, they are swayed more by the market preference when it comes to what to restore. When one restores talking machines for their own enjoyment, they restore to what says "beautiful" in their mind.

I refelted because my 83 year old dirty felt went down the drain! lol

[Valecnik]

When it comes to who is right about refelting it is part the restorer and part the buyer, I think. All comments on this post are right in their own way.

If one restores a machine with new parts there are people who appreciate a fully restored machine that looks pristine mint. There are also buyers who want a machines that look as if they haven't been touched up in 100 years and would rather have a machine in less than new looking/working order if its condition preserved some sentiment of yesteryear to them.

There are enough buyers of each preference, old looking and new looking, at the moment to service the wallet of each type or restorer's preference in what to replace and what to keep.

I guess the reason of refelting came up to me personally is that I just didn't like the condition of the felt and, from the comments from both sides of the fence, I see I may have been able to find a buyer before I refelted and one after I refelted.

I'm happy with the job and if some day I feel that I did a poor job I'll try again with a new technique or new material. One thing I can't do is get back the original felt and that part of my machine was gone as soon as I tried to wash it. Most of it went down the sink drain.

I think if one restores talking machines as a investment, they are swayed more by the market preference when it comes to what to restore. When one restores talking machines for their own enjoyment, they restore to what says "beautiful" in their mind.

I refelted because my 83 year old dirty felt went down the drain! lol

I think you are pretty much right on there Sansenoi. My opinion is just that, an opinion, and ... as my wife frequently points out, my opinion is often not the right one.

[Orthophonic]

About the only thing different that I do is to lay the turntable upside down on the felt and mark through the center hole where the center is. I punch out the mark in the felt with a 1\4" hope punch and then place a 1\4" dowel in the turntable. Spray upholstery glue like you use to replace headliners in cars onto the felt or either the turntable and press it into place. When dry, remove the dowel and shave off the outside like others have mentioned before. For me, I like to spray the turntable after taping the outside rim with masking tape so that there will not be a bunch of sticky glue to mess with. Works like a champ!