The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Brad Abell asked how far I'd gotten on this machine and I have to admit that I kind of set it aside last spring and got busy with other stuff. I had gotten two large runs in the varnish on the right side of the cabinet, so I had to let the varnish dry rock hard so I could sand them out. It's really a case of the longer you wait, the better sort of thing. The runs sanded out really nicely with a piece of marble and some wet & dry sandpaper. I have a pump organ I'm varnishing right now along with a radio cabinet, so I figured I might as well get this cabinet pulled out and finish it up. So this is where I'm at with it today. I wrenched my ankle like a dumb-ass on Monday when I was getting out of my UPS truck, so if nothing else I did get the rest of the week off and I can do some wet sanding and varnish polishing with my bum leg.

I'm actually quite happy with how the old girl is coming along. And since the fashion now with phonographs seems to be propping the lid up against the cabinet to take a picture it seemed a good idea to do that before I got the cabinet any further together! I know many of you will appreciate that. It's by no means perfect. I'm really not into that as you can go on and on for another 18 months on something like this quite easily. It looks nice now and mahogany does seem to like a rubbed out finish. I got all the green paint off the hinges and hopefully I'll get it back together by the end of the week.

If you are in a hardware or paint store that's been around for 75 years or more look around on the bottom shelves and you might find some really old varnish down there. Unless it's spar varnish, it will work on furniture. It really is a shame that Behlan stopped making rubbing varnish about 10 years ago. I found 6 gallons in an old hardware store about 10-12 years ago and I've used up about three since then. It's slow drying and takes about a week between coats, but you can hardly say it's not worth the wait. It's hard to see in pictures, but if you have any other finish next to the varnish that was popular before the polyurethane came out, you'll go for the varnish every time. Shellac would be next in line in my opinion. Varnish is a lot of work though. I have between 5-6 coats on this cabinet over a thin coat of de-waxed orange shellac. It's been block sanded between coats and then wet sanded to 2500 grit before I rubbed it out the last couple of days with the 3-M auto polishes. It's very smooth now and I'll give it a coat of some kind of car polish after it rests a few days. I may have a few spots that need some more rubbing and I'll do that before I wax it. This old varnish is "Coach" varnish and was for woodwork inside railroad cars and in houses in general. If it were actually rubbing varnish it would cure faster, so it has to set about a week before it will take to polishing.

Anyway, this is where it's at. I put the scrap of wallpaper on the floor so you can see it's kind of a reflective finish. It's not so much like that in person though. Opinions will vary, but I do like this better than the green paint. And if I have the lid in the wrong position for the picture, let me know as I'm not quite sure what the rules are there. Haha! Earl.

That is soooo nice! What did you use to fill the grain?

Beautiful! I'm very glad you were able to get it looking that nice!

I used an oil based grain filler. It's branded "Masters" and a local paint store (Diamond Vogel) here sells it. Here in the Midwest Diamond Vogel is a pretty big paint store and they may make it themselves. But I honestly doubt that there's much variation in any of the oil based grain fillers that are out there. I've tried the water based stuff, but it dries too fast and I don't know how to tint it for color. I get the "natural" color and then add pigment to it to get the color I want. You can use the pigments that they use for soap. They are not ground so fine that they change the color of the wood very much. I know Victor used powdered seaweed according to them, so there are a lot of ways to get the grain filled I guess. The seaweed mixture probably took the stain that Victor was using really well, so that was probably why they went with it. I don't know if they were using that mixture when these cabinets were being sold but they woulnd't have had any water based products in 1906.

Earl, the work you have done is simply stunning. To see how far gone this cabinet was when you found it to where it is today, its just fantastic. I have done a lot of wood working in my life so I can say that you are an artist. Congratulations and from all of us who feel pain when we see a re-purposed butchered phonograph, thank you.

Thanks for the update Earl--- It looks great!!! I'll be sure to show Gene the next time I'm over at his place-- He'll be glad that his "dwarf' VTLA will soon be talking again.

I finished up the Herzog I got from you- It turned out beautifully--- I made new door shelves and matched the finish to the two originals that were in the cabinet-- new pegs, numbered, new finish- fixed the door swivel-- I'm glad to have it in my collection-
Please post some final pics of the Pooley when you finish it up-

Thanks!

Brad Abell