Tin Foil Machine

[hearsedriver]

Interesting but...seller has no feedback. Anyone know anything about this one?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/antique-cylinde ... 1438.l2649

[RolandVV-360]

Could use some cleaning up, but well worth the buy, that is if the price stays low.

[rgordon939]

Seller has ZERO (0) sales on eBay. I'd be cautious.

Rich Gordon

[fran604g]

Seller has ZERO (0) sales on eBay. I'd be cautious.

Rich Gordon

I agree with Rich. This item has the potential to sell quite high.

Best,
Fran

[rgordon939]

Just for information i'm pretty sure this is one of the replica of the original Kruesi prototype. It's probably the most precise copy of the original Kruesi model that was created by Bill Ptacek in 1996. He made a total of twelve of them.

Rich Gordon

[fran604g]

Just for information i'm pretty sure this is one of the replica of the original Kruesi prototype. It's probably the most precise copy of the original Kruesi model that was created by Bill Ptacek in 1996. He made a total of twelve of them.

Rich Gordon

That's what I was thinking Rich.

There's only one original in existence, IIRC.

I hope Rene chimes in with his thoughts.

Best,
Fran

[hearsedriver]

If anyone here is bidding on this, I would ask for more pictures first to see how the seller responds and then ask for a phone number and call the person with questions. You'll get a better idea of the kind of seller you are dealing with over the phone. It could be legit. Everyone starts with zero feedback. It could be a huge scam. Beware!
It is very cool though!
Im no expert but, when comparing this one to pictures of Bill Ptacek reproduction, the base molding is different as well as the shape of the wooden crank handle. He may have varied those though.

[TinfoilPhono]

That's definitely not one of Bill Ptacek's. (He made around 35-45 of the Kruesi replicas, by the way -- his other replica tinfoils were in much smaller quantities.)

There have been dozens of people who have made Kruesi replicas over the years. For many years the Edison Site sold copies of the blueprints Edison's team drew up after the machine was repatriated from England in 1927. That gave any competent machinist the dimensions and other details needed.

Two of the other top makers are Mirek Stehlik in Canada, and Bill Miller in Michigan. Their Kruesis are extremely detailed. Each made +/- 25.

I have no idea who might have made the eBay example. Unless the maker marked it in some way (usually underneath the base plate) it would be very hard to know.

I agree that if anyone is thinking of bidding on it, they should request a lot more information and more pictures. For all anyone knows, there might not even be a recording phonet on the hidden side. Whether or not the stylii are still there would be another consideration.

[hearsedriver]

I asked the seller for more pictures and he added them to the auction. Looks promising.

[TinfoilPhono]

I can't see any maker's mark, but that's not unusual. Overall it looks to be pretty accurately rendered. Not all are done that well. It is missing both the recording and reproducing stylii, however.