The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hello everybody!

In your opinion, where can I find a book (or, better, a web site) on restorate/ renovate a graphophone for beginners? In my case, it’s a Columbia AT, but it can of course be a different brand of phonographs).

Thank you for your answers/ help.


Pat

PS)I bought the book from Reiss a few days ago by Amazon. It should arrive from the States a few days (I live in France).

The complete talking machine is a good book.

There is an outstanding step-by-step slide show on the Antique Phonograph Society web site under "Videos." It details how to disassemble a Graphophone BK/T motor, but the AT motor is quite similar.

http://www.antiquephono.org/videos/

The slide show is at the top right of the selections.

George P.

That is a beef I have with Columbia motors: having to tear the whole blasted thing down in order to adjust the governor...

Bill

phonogfp wrote:There is an outstanding step-by-step slide show on the Antique Phonograph Society web site under "Videos." It details how to disassemble a Graphophone BK/T motor, but the AT motor is quite similar.

http://www.antiquephono.org/videos/

The slide show is at the top right of the selections.

George P.

Hello everybody. Hello Georges, hello Bill.

Georges, your video is an absolutely E X C E P T I O N A L resource. Anyone can also restore successfully his Columbus Graphophone with meticulous care & succes. Once again, Georges, congratulations and well done / bravo !

I will print all pics, one after another. And I'll have to translate all text, because I hardly understand the language, if at all. It will take hours and hours with the Google translator, this will require hard work, but it will be well worth it.

I still have some questions, Georges:
What about the restoration of the wooden box/ lid ?
What about restoring the “external” metallic parts?
Just in case, have you also made some other videos for answering on the last two questions?


Patrick

patrick-l wrote:
Georges, your video is an absolutely E X C E P T I O N A L resource. Anyone can also restore successfully his Columbus Graphophone with meticulous care & succes. Once again, Georges, congratulations and well done / bravo !

I still have some questions, Georges:
What about the restoration of the wooden box/ lid ?
What about restoring the “external” metallic parts?
Just in case, have you also made some other videos for answering on the last two questions?


Patrick

Patrick,

I'm happy that you're pleased with the slideshow, but we need to give credit where it's due: Fran Pratt made that slideshow entirely on his own initiative. All I did was forward it to one of our tech guys who uploaded it to the web site. Fran deserves all the credit!

As for the wooden cabinet/lid and the upper works, I'm a fan of GoJo or Goop: non-pumiced hand cleaner. Usually, one or two applications of 5 minutes or so will remove stubborn grunge on painted metal parts without harming factory decoration (added retailer decals need special care).

Bare metal or nickel-plated surfaces can be cleaned the same way, but will often require a light polish with 0000 steel wool. The teeth of gears can be cleaned with an old toothbrush brushing side-to-side. This is especially effective after the gear has soaked in Goop/GoJo and the crud in the teeth has softened somewhat.

Metal polish such as Never-Dull or Flitz can bring up nickel plating to a bright shine.

The Antique Phonograph Society has no additional slideshows (yet) on cleaning wooden parts and metal parts as described above, but I hope to convince Fran to make some.

George P.

phonogfp wrote:

patrick-l wrote:
Georges, your video is an absolutely E X C E P T I O N A L resource. Anyone can also restore successfully his Columbus Graphophone with meticulous care & succes. Once again, Georges, congratulations and well done / bravo !

I still have some questions, Georges:
What about the restoration of the wooden box/ lid ?
What about restoring the “external” metallic parts?
Just in case, have you also made some other videos for answering on the last two questions?


Patrick

Patrick,

I'm happy that you're pleased with the slideshow, but we need to give credit where it's due: Fran Pratt made that slideshow entirely on his own initiative. All I did was forward it to one of our tech guys who uploaded it to the web site. Fran deserves all the credit!

As for the wooden cabinet/lid and the upper works, I'm a fan of GoJo or Goop: non-pumiced hand cleaner. Usually, one or two applications of 5 minutes or so will remove stubborn grunge on painted metal parts without harming factory decoration (added retailer decals need special care).

Bare metal or nickel-plated surfaces can be cleaned the same way, but will often require a light polish with 0000 steel wool. The teeth of gears can be cleaned with an old toothbrush brushing side-to-side. This is especially effective after the gear has soaked in Goop/GoJo and the crud in the teeth has softened somewhat.

Metal polish such as Never-Dull or Flitz can bring up nickel plating to a bright shine.

The Antique Phonograph Society has no additional slideshows (yet) on cleaning wooden parts and metal parts as described above, but I hope to convince Fran to make some.

George P.

Thank you for the kind words, Patrick, and George!

It will be a long winter, and I have a few Phonographs in need of my undivided (and obsessive) attention.

Patrick, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to PM me here and ask, I'm happy to offer help in any way I can. Also, there are several in-depth posts here showing cabinet restorations, by folks much better experienced than I am in such things; I suggest you do a forum search, and some reading. I'm confident that you will find the answers to all of your questions, this forum is an indispensable resource!

Best,
Fran

Also take a look at http://www.restore-a-gram.co.uk/. It's UK based but has a wealth of information, much of which will apply to the US also...