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FloridaClay wrote:I now have the cabinet lid reassembled and looking pretty good. One question with respect to that. On one end of the inside of the lid was a fairly large, thick U-shaped piece of pretty new wood, meant to reinforce that end I guess--perhaps to buttress an earlier repair. There was no similar piece of wood on the other end. However, in looking at some on-line pictures I see some Triumph lids appear to have had something almost identical on both ends of the inside of the lid from the beginning and others don't. What is the story on these?

Clay

Those are the original shipping braces to help prevent lid damage in transit. Lots of Triumphs still have them in their lids. I think it's kind of neat, since they were meant to be removed and thrown away.

George P.

phonogfp wrote:

FloridaClay wrote:I now have the cabinet lid reassembled and looking pretty good. One question with respect to that. On one end of the inside of the lid was a fairly large, thick U-shaped piece of pretty new wood, meant to reinforce that end I guess--perhaps to buttress an earlier repair. There was no similar piece of wood on the other end. However, in looking at some on-line pictures I see some Triumph lids appear to have had something almost identical on both ends of the inside of the lid from the beginning and others don't. What is the story on these?

Clay

Those are the original shipping braces to help prevent lid damage in transit. Lots of Triumphs still have them in their lids. I think it's kind of neat, since they were meant to be removed and thrown away.

George P.

They are kind of neat, I agree except for adding about 5 pounds to an already heavy machine. Also, if you have all three if them as in this case, the lid can only fit on one way. The center brace has a cutout to fit around the top works.

Thanks for the info on the shipping braces. Those are exactly the same as the one I have.

I agree. Kind of neat. I will keep it with the machine.

Clay

Thought I would bring everyone up to date. As you may know from another thread, I bought my Triumph D on eBay from a collector thinning out his collection (he has several more listings still up). He promised to send the mechanicals and the case in separate boxes, but didn't and the results weren't pretty.

In any event it is now looking pretty good after many hours of elbow grease application. There are some cracks where wood split, but they are not too noticeable. Some before pics and an after pic are below.

In addition to the breakage, the finish was in a pretty sad "lived in a shed somewhere sometime" state. (A good deal worse than it looks in the before pics.) Weathered, black with dirt, and very splotchy shellac with lots of little spots where the shellac was gone all together. You could barely see the Edison decal.

I tried something for the first that turned out very well, a kind of variation on the shellac reamalgamation routine. I went after it with denatured alcohol and 0000 steel wool, rubbing fairly vigorously until some grain began to appear and going back over spots as necessary to get a fairly uniform appearance.

The secret I found is to work in fairly small areas at a time, use the alcohol liberally to keep the steel wool and the case work area wet, and promptly wipe off the area where you've rubbed with paper towels before the alcohol evaporates. (If you don't wipe promptly you can wind up with lumps of goo. I used Brawny paper towels as I found they don't leave paper fuzz in the finish.) Rub gently over the decal area and stop as soon as you begin to see the decal brighten up so as not to get down into the decal itself with alcohol. The result is a much improved appearance with evenly distributed shellac and the aged color preserved.

Wear rubber or plastic gloves. It is messy. And of course remember not to work anywhere near anthing with an open flame.

After it was dry, which does not take long with alcohol, I finished up with Howard's "Feed-N-Wax."

Clay

Very nice work Clay! You will enjoy this machine, guaranteed, once you get it complete and running.

Thanks. Next will be sending to top works off to get them in good order.

Clay

Nice job Clay. I still have a Home Model E in the basement that arrived in similar condition 2 years ago. I was so frustrated that I never touched it. Your results give me motivation to look at it again.

Andreas

Feeling a bit more comfortable about my investment in the Triumph so far, even with the hassles of repairing the smashed cabinet. It has a good Model O reproducer and one just brought $335 on eBay.

Clay

The Triumph looks good, Clay!


And $335 for a decent O Reproducer seems pretty cheap to me!

George P.

Well, it looks like in addition to the shipping issues, I have been the victim of plain old fashioned fraud. Got the following report about the top works back from George V today.

"Pretty cobbled up mess. The feed screw is marked Home B, the gearing only D which I think is OK and the mandrel I can not find a marking on. The shaft sure has been messed up though. Along with that big area that's been ground out the hole on the opposite side has been enlarged and drilled deeper. My initial guess is someone was trying to piece together something form odds and ends and not right ones at that. The collar is from a Model b like the feed screw. Now for the bad news. I do not have parts for the Triumphs, at least as far as I know, but I'll check before tossing in the towel."

I may be in search of a bunch of Triumph model D upper works parts it seems.

Clay