The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

In the process of assessing what it will take to restore my Edison H-19 Hepplewhite, it has occurred to me that I have no idea how to disassemble the horn from the knurled part that holds the reproducer, so that I can repaint the horn and send the brass out for plating. (This isn't happening anytime soon, but still)

It's soldered on at that point. You need to mark it so you can get the position right when you re-solder it.

Fantastic...

I've re-soldered a few of them and it's not all that difficult as long as you have it all clean and tinned when you go to put it back together.

What is tinned?

When you solder it back together you need to (tin) coat each side with some solder & flux so when you heat it up it will go together without having to add more solder. Don't rush how fast it cools so it makes a good joint. You'll have to repaint the horn after you solder them back together. 60/40 solder is what I usually use, and don't even try the lead free stuff or you'll forget what a nice guy you are. Ha! The 60/40 solder has a lower melting point than the 40/60 stuff I think by about 100 degrees. Are you sending the reproducer connection out to get it gold plated?

That's the plan, yes. All of the brass is gonna be sent out.

Make sure they copper plate it under the gold or it won't be the right color, it will look like brass. I got a brake from an early Victrola XVI re-plated about 20 years ago and the guy doing the work told me that. I'm not sure how they did that matt finish, but I've often wondered if it was dipped in acid or something after the copper plate was put on. It's too even and they did WAY too much of it for it to involve much work.

Some companies offer an antique gold finish that looks pretty good to me. It looks accurate, I mean.

They have gotten a lot better about that gold finish than they used to be. When I got that Victrola brake done, I talked to three or four platers before I found one that had any idea what I was talking about. It didn't come back with that matte or stain finish, but at least the color was right. In those days none of the platers I talked to knew anything about the burnished copper that you see on some of the Edison stuff. There used to be a guy here in Iowa that did it, but he got tired of dealing with the EPA and pulled the plug on his company. I used to have him do some stove work for me and it was nice because I could drive the parts down there. He was the one that mentioned the copper plating to me, he didn't do gold plating but told me who to have do it after all the trouble I had finding an outfit.