The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi everyone!

For about a month now, I have been working on the restoration of my 1907 Columbia type BQ Graphophone.

I am now finished with the restoration. Throughout the process, I took lots of pictures and decided I would like to share the pictures on the forum.

I have posted a video of the restored machine with some commentary about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1-sA-KTKpo

Here is the machine before any work had been done:



















Now the restoration pictures. First, the case:






















Now, the bedplate, reproducer carriage, and horn elbow:








Gregg Cline decal applied (thanks Gregg) and pin stripping done by hand:







Polishing the bedplate after shellacing. You know its shiny when you can see your fingerprints all over it!







Repainting the horn. (The paint that was on it when I got it was not original and was not done very well.)









And, finally, the finished product. (You will notice that I added 2/4 gearing that I took off of a BK parts machine. While rebuilding the Lyric reproducer, I replaced the 2 minute stylus bar with a stylus bar from an Edison H reproducer so that I can play 2 and 4 minute celluloid cylinders.)

Great Restoration. The machine looks and plays great.
Harvey Kravitz

Very nice! Congratulations - -

George P.

Your restoration looks excellent! Good job! How did you achieve the straight lines for the stenciling?

Best,

Garret

BRAVO!!!!! WELL DONE! I especially liked how you retained the design of the bedplate lines and accents on the hardware. A+

I repeat what the others have all said, nicely done!

Best,
Fran

Wonderful!

Props for mad skills! Hand painted gold striping just as it was done originally. I like how you started off restoring the bottom that no one will likely ever see just as well as the rest. To me, that's exactly the right approach.

Congrats on a stunning job.

Thanks everyone for the compliments!

This was one of the more extensive restorations that I have done.

I bought this machine with 20 Indestructible records off of Craigslist for $300 from a lady who has had it in her family since it was new.

Garrett, for the straight pin striping on the bedplate, I simply used a ruler. Now, the horn elbow and reproducer carriage are a different story because of the curved lines. On the horn elbow, I ended up taping a rubber band onto the elbow in the shape that I wanted the line and traced the edge of the curved rubber band. On the reproducer carriage, I found a round object that was the same size as the original pin striping circle and traced around it, then carefully joined the circle lines with the straight lines. The pin striping on the elbow and reproducer carriage was by far the most tedious and stressful part of the restoration, as the gold marker is permanent and the only thing that I have found that will remove it in the case of a mistake was to wet a pencil eraser with my tongue and then rub out the mistake vigorously.

-Cody