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Hi all,

I've been asked to restore this poor little fella: As you can see, someone tried to fix, restore, modify, what the hell he was thinking???, whatever it by adding a threaded hole on the side, a very thick brass ring, a longer bar, a contraption done with 2 leaf springs... and LOTS of JB Weld!
I started to dismantle the mess and all the JB Weld fell in pieces leaving a horrible spectacle. It took me about a week thinking on how to approach this restoration. It's a bloody expensive piece and I think its made of grey cast iron so very very difficult to solder due to its high content of graphite. The other problem I feared was a couple of small areas in the middle and the right of the broken part that indicated it might have been attacked with a torch and might left them unstable. The fact that the interior paper was a crude reproduction suggested also that a it suffered a heat episode in the past. After evaluating several alternatives I decided that I will graft a piece on the existing hole and start rebuilding it from there.

I milled the offending zone and temporarily silver soldered a new piece. When I was milling it, a new little hole appeared. It was hidden with JB Weld. To reinforce the piece, I added a rivet on each side. I took the little template I took earlier and transferred the measurements. I used the hole on the side as reference to index them correctly so after doing it I also closed it with a flush rivet. Some more time with the mill, lathe and taps produced this pretty shapes and screws: I made a start reproducing the bar and needle holder but ran out of time so it will have to wait until tomorrow. Regards,

Pedro Martínez

Very impressive. Your skill level is way beyond mine. I wish you lived nearby. Perhaps you should move to Oregon.

Jerry Blais

Jerry B. wrote:Very impressive. Your skill level is way beyond mine. I wish you lived nearby. Perhaps you should move to Oregon.

Jerry Blais

Hi Jerry,

I'm from Spain but I've lived in France, Mexico and Chile. So who knows where I will go in the future!

I've done restorations for people al around the globe. Nowadays its very easy to ship securely this kind of things.

Regards,

Pedro Martinez

Pedro, you are suffering for the sins of the previous mechanic. We can all feel your pain. It looks like you have a good jump on the project and the skills to see it through. I look forward to seeing the finished result. Thanks for posting.

2nd day of work on this reproducer.

Some time tinkering with photoshop produced this nice soundbox papers. According to the pictures I had, some of them were reddish and others greyish. After consulting with the owner we think that the reddish ones are caused bu the oxidation of the case so we opted for the dark grey version. I also made several combinations with different pieces of mica till I found the correct combination. I also decided to do a very thin diaphragm because it is so little that I fear using a thick one will give very little sound. Then it was time to fabricate the rubber gaskets, big washer and retaining piano wire ring. Nothing too complicated except finding the correct thickness of the gaskets. Next was the "triple eyed 8" that connects the bar to the chassis. I detempered a piece of steel spring and marked some measurements. This time I remembered to take a picture with the torch! It needed several cycles of detempering because it works hard very easily when drilling. And without any reason, it snapped in 2 pieces... With my self esteem broken but not defeated I started again and this time I managed to do the rough shape that will be thinned later on. So it was time to attack the last piece. I did a new version of the bar because I didn't liked 100% yesterdays version. This is the end result. I confess that I managed to loose the tiny screw that holds the diaphragm so I did a new one...

So that's all for today. Tomorrow it will be a nickle plating day of all this parts and some others that are on different threads.

Stay tuned!

I am in awe of your abilities! Such wonderful work (I'm on par with the epoxy "repairman").
-bill

BRAVO!!!!!! BRAVO!!!!!!! That was like watching a great movie with a happy ending! You do excellent work!

Chapeau!!!

It's done!

First I took care of the little-hole-that-should-not-be-there. In order to avoid inducing more damage in very beaten area I decided to fill it with a silver piece very lightly riveted and flush filed. So it was time to nickel plating all the pieces and assemble it.

And this is the result! It was a nice puzzle to assemble it. To reach the tiny screw that holds the diaphragm to the bar thru the long throat tube is a feat by itself. I put a minute drop of wax to secure the screw. I put it in the interior to do not spoil the looks.

I quick test proved that it sounds pretty well so I'm really happy with it.

Regards,

Pedro Martínez

Hi Pedro.
Very nice job. How did you cut the mica?