Criteria for Using a Machine for its Parts?

[Cody K]

Hi -- As I've probably mentioned, I bought an Actuelle recently. It was missing the record storage shelves, having been used in recent years mainly as a liquor cabinet. The rest of the machine is in very nice shape, and as I figure out how to make the necessary adjustments, with a major boost from the new cone just made by Buford Chidester, the sound restoration is coming along nicely (with one small glitch, though that's another topic). I hope to have a video up on the 'nets within a month.

But I'm feeling vaguely criminal, 'cause I've brutalized a Victrola X along the way. I'm wondering where others on the forum draw a line, if and when considering using one machine as parts for another?

In this case, the X was pretty seriously messed up below the knees -- it had sat in a basement flooded with a foot of water for two weeks before its owner knew about the flood. The veneer was flying off it, and it had lost a leg, which had drifted off in the deluge and the owner threw it out.

I paid my twenty dollars and took it into the ICU -- did the best I could with re-adhering the veneer, made it a new leg. The top part is fine, plays nicely, motor's perfectly good after a cleaning and re-lube.

But the bottom half was a disaster, and the shelves were still fine, different in design but similar in size to the missing Actuelle shelves, so, after some consideration and mustache-twisting, I got out the chain saw.

And now the Actuelle has shelves, and the X is that despised thing, not a table model, but a "Table Model". I'm...okay with this. A better, scarcer, machine got the benefit of it. It was a X, in lousy shape, and nobody's gonna miss it. In fact, it may have a new life with someone who doesn't care much except to have the top as a reliable machine to play 78s on when the mood hits.

But, coming from an antiques background where certain things are written in stone -- don't mess with the finish, don't make modifications, add nothing -- and these are rules I believe in -- I keep wondering, where do you draw the line? Some of the aberrations we all run across are just whimsy -- my local (RI) Craigslist currently features a Victrola table-top that someone turned into a cabinet model (looks reversible!) and there are really damaging hacks like paint jobs...

But at some point, re-use of parts from a damaged machine becomes sensible, if not inevitable. I'd really like to know how folks make that call?

[VintageTechnologies]

Cody, you might as well argue religion or politics, it would be less controversial! The line between restoration or parting out is blurred. Some people have a higher tolerance of cosmetic roughness or presence of replica parts than others. I suppose that rarity would be a consideration. Sometimes we will rescue a machine even when it does not make economic sense because we want to see an artifact preserved. If you read some of the threads on this site, you will find that parting out good machines is roundly condemned. You can sadly find dealers on eBay that do just that. You sound concerned enough about preservation that I trust you will make good decisions even on your own.

[Cody K]

Well, that's just the thing. Issues of preservation, from architecture to baseball cards, often do get to a point where arguments almost are religious -- dogmatic -- or political -- as in, who benefits? I'm thinking about it lately because cutting down the X felt kind of weird, and I'm wondering what criteria others use when deciding a machine is too far gone to save.

I agree that rarity is the first consideration, and certain machines are inherently better scavenged for than from. Maybe that's the rule-of-thumb. It's possible my question doesn't have an answer, because every machine in every situation will be unique. The idea of parting out useable machines seems criminal to me. I'm just curious, though, to know where others draw the line.

[De Soto Frank]

Look on e-bay... there are quite a few folks with no such qualms about parting machines... even intact, working examples, as they feel it will generate more revenue pieced-out than as a complete machine.

I'm not suggesting this is "right"...


In the case of your ex-X, it sounds like you made a rational decision, based on what the machine had been through, what its potential might be considering, and keeping in mind its relative common-ness and value.

They cannot all be saved... I think it's a case-by-case basis...

30-some years ago, I picked-up a Victor VV-210 console that was missing the taper-tube, horn slats, turn-table, sound-box, crank, motor... but the cabinet was/is sound, save for some gouging on one end of the lid. In my teen-age naivete`, I paid $50 for the carcass, figuring I would find the parts and make it whole again... not too long after, a collector friend gave me a motor, taper-tube and base, #2 soundbox, and the cast-iron part of a horn. I do not know if any of this stuff is germaine to a VV-210, and frankly, I haven't messed with since going off to college...

Should I have bothered in with it in the first place ? Probably not, as it's not a particularly desireable cabinet/ model ... but, now that I have it, I may try to complete it, or pass the project along to someone who can do it justice.

I don't think you've committed a horrible, capital offense, using the bottom of the Victrola to complete another machine...

[FloridaClay]

Cody, all of us who really care about these machines agonize over these kinds of decisions, but it sounds to me as though you made the right one in this kind of situation. Sometimes things are just too far gone. And who knows, you may run across a great X case with no mechanicals and may be able to resurrect it, or enable its owner to do that.

Clay

[soundgen]

Heres's one for parts only , can anyone disagree it's riddled with worm!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121199242189? ... 1432.l2649

[briankeith]

There is a seller on EBay that always parts out perfectly good working clean machines. reproducer sold separately, lid sold separately, horn sold separately, turntable sold separately, you get the idea. We all know who he is as it's been mentioned before right here on the forum. I cannot figure this antique shop out for the life of me.......

[soundgen]

There is a seller on EBay that always parts out perfectly good working clean machines. reproducer sold separately, lid sold separately, horn sold separately, turntable sold separately, you get the idea. We all know who he is as it's been mentioned before right here on the forum. I cannot figure this antique shop out for the life of me.......

It makes money!

[VintageTechnologies]

"It makes money!"

So does prostitution and robbing banks.

[ambrola]

There is a seller on EBay that always parts out perfectly good working clean machines. reproducer sold separately, lid sold separately, horn sold separately, turntable sold separately, you get the idea. We all know who he is as it's been mentioned before right here on the forum. I cannot figure this antique shop out for the life of me.......

It makes money!

I hope that seller has a thousand parts he can not sell. Greed is what its called. Parting out Firesides and Victor horn machines. I have tried to buy the complete machine, but he will not.
Back to the question, I think you did fine. When its all said and done, it comes down to rarity to me. I mean, they made a zillion X's, just like a model A Ford. I see no harm.