Criteria for Using a Machine for its Parts?
Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 9:56 pm
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?
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?
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.
