New guy here, GREAT site!

[alang]

Great machine, you will get a lot of enjoyment out of it. I hope I will look that good at age 93.

Definitely DO NOT use Tung Oil. If you want to clean it, just use some Kotton Klenser or the pumice free versions of GoJo or GooP hand cleaner. Then something like Howard's Feed 'n' Wax or Kotton Klenser's Protective Wood Feeder or their Lemon Oil and Beeswax polish will give a beautiful shine. For the nickel plated parts like the tonearm etc just a gentle polish with Nevr-Dull should be all you need. If the machine has been serviced properly there should not be much else to do.

Enjoy!
Andreas

[hvychev]

Thanks for the comments guys. Thanks for letting me know NOT to use tongue oil. Ron cleaned it up with lemon oil already, I guess I will just stick to Lemon Pledge then! As far as the hardware, I won't go crazy, I might just hit it with some Maas metal polish lightly. I am very excited to have a nice Victrola!

[FloridaClay]

Steer clear of commercial spray furniture polishes. Some of them contain silicon, which can cause major problems later if finish restoration or repair is needed. Get yourself some Kotton Klenser lemon oil and beeswax polish. MUCH better and won't screw up the finish.

http://kottonklenser.com/

Clay

[Victrolacollector]

I would say you are never to young to own a Victrola, or other wind-up machine. I was 13, when I got my first wind-up phonograph. A Magnola Talking Machine, a off-brand Chicago phonograph. I then purchased my first cylinder machine at 20, and ever since have collected, now I just turned 40 and thats old. LOL

[hvychev]

I know some of you guys said not to do this, but I got some Maas metal polish and worked the nickel on my machine tonight. I did a light cleaning and took apart every single piece of metal except the lid and front door hinges. I will tell ya, I am blown away at how nice everything came out. I meticulously cleaned everything down to the last screw. I took decades of tarnish and grime off of the metal and it looks awesome now. Things like the speed adjuster were so bad they were black and I could barely read what speed the machine was at. The most spectacular is the whole tone arm assembly, just amazing now. This machine is like factory new and with the original finish and servicing by Ron Haring, this thing will need nothing for decades.

[hvychev]

I also found some very cool "accessories" to go with my machine. The "How to get the most out of your Victrola" book was something I wanted because it is dated the exact year (1919) that my machine was manufactured. I also liked that it has the original envelope. I also got the instruction booklet and those other two record booklets. I was pretty happy with the price of that lot (S17.00), especially since they are original and not repros.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VICTOR-RECORDS- ... true&rt=nc

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VICTOR-VICTROLA ... true&rt=nc

[hvychev]

A couple more pics.

[FloridaClay]

Your machine looks very good hvychev. And having the collection of ephemera to go with it is nice.

While there is a wide range of opinion on restoration--all the way from don't touch anything to make it factory new, my sense of it is that the majority of us here are in the middle and have no problem with a good cleaning and servicing the mechanics to make machines function well to and give them a leg up on being around for another hundred years.

IMHO, you did a fine job.

Clay