The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This is the first phonograph I ever bought, when I was in high school in 2016ish. And I've gotten plenty of good use out of it since for my 78s. Even though I picked up a Panatrope, a Victor III, and other great phonographs I still enjoy the XIV.
It is a 1914 VV-XIV, E series, large crescent speed indicator and 3-spring motor. It's "restored", a little, I guess. I fixed it up when I was inexperienced and it was the first phonograph I'd ever seen that wasn't in a museum or anything. Bought it to keep the antique dealer in town from cutting it up and making a file cabinet out of it. She had been selling it at a high price but couldn't get rid of it because it looked kind of garbage and came with a plastic bag of broken parts.

I put a while into it and got it going. But I'm redoing the motor soon. I was taking it apart to service the mainsprings when I found one was cracked partway across. It's too close to the inner coils to repair, and I might as well change all three.

The speed indicator is also a mess; it works but the leather is shot.

I'm not sure if I'm going to do anything to the cabinet.

I think we all remember our first machine and our first restoration.
Figuring out how those motors work is fun. So simple but mesmerizing to watch them go just from a few cranks of the handle.
It’s rewarding to make it run quieter or even run at all.
In my opinion, all cabinet restorations should keep original finishes and just cleaned and polished. Unless the cabinet is a total loss and needs an entire strip down and refinish.

Either way, it’s your machine and you hold the rights to do with as you wish.

Please share more photos when done! I’m sure it will look great either way. Fantastic machine!

Best I can tell I found it in 2015 when I was looking through the window of an often-closed antique shop in town. I walked a mile or so to the shop & was printing my face against the plate-glass window until I saw the silhouette of the machine in there. The crank was angled up so I knew it still had the motor in it, and I decided it was time to go talk to the dealer.
I saved my money from mowing yards, stuffed it bill by bill into an envelope which I kept in the back of my dresser. I had a little roll going there where I would keep stuffing money into a stash. Moved up from the envelope to a fruit-jar, and from the fruit-jar to walking to the antique store again to go and purchase the Victrola.

This is what it looked like when I found it. Admittedly this is pretty awful. I thought I'd found a prize, but realized pretty quickly, reading Paul Edie's "The Victor-Victrola Page," that this was definitely a fairly common and not particularly desirable Victrola, and was quite old. Instead of being from the 1920s it was more like 1914. Did not expect the Exhibition soundbox to work that well--of course I'd never heard a Victrola except for one time in an antique store so anyway.
I spent weeks and dollars on it--got the motor going first, then rebuilt the reproducer and tonearm, then replaced the missing back panel and finished it to match. I glued down loose veneer, tightened a back leg that was threatening to fall off, reinstalled the wooden back to the album shelves in it, made a new indicator card for the speed dial, rebuilt the governor and packed stuff with grease that looked like it could stand some grease.

When I got done, the old Victrola looked a bit more like this:
Right now, though, it's been in rather shabby condition as it has gotten dents and dings in it, has had stuff piled on the lid of it-- Life has not always been easy, and it hasn't exactly been kind to the Victrola either. I may actually re-amalgamate the finish instead of using Howards' Feed-n-Wax and all that. The ultimate would be to replate the knobs and the turntable, or all the brightwork all over it--it's all wearing. The crank was so badly rusted when I got it that I had to scrub it within an inch of its life, and though I was going to replace it I figured I'd keep it as it still winds it up anyway.

The motor is right now getting the spa treatment in the barn along with a 1964 Redmond Controls motor from a vintage typewriter that's turning into some other kinds of equipment, a 1907 Edison Standard C motor, and a 1929 or 1930 Grigsby-Grunow motor that I keep threatening to build into a whole new turntable.

I am having fun with re-doing the work that younger me did; it's been a great investment in listening enjoyment & record storage, and I'm glad I started out with an XIV instead of something either too big or too little. It does have a large horn which helps the audio fidelity, & I may end up doing some stuff to it as I keep going.

Right now I'm in a triage state with it trying to figure out what I want to do to it other than just get the motor working.

You'll do a fantastic job on this Charles. Afterall... it was you who first showed me how to take apart a phonograph motor. Remember that ol Edison Standard? If you hadn't showed me how to do all that, my collection would not be what it currently is and I CERTAINLY would never have had the confidence to take on some of the restorations I have done.

Looking forward to seeing the end results.

Cheers,

David

Congratulations, it is something to be proud of, and you will appreciate every step to the finished phonograph, when you are finished!
Burdette

This is the way to learn.
You are on the path and it will become easier and easier.

Great job!

James.

I can't quite decide whether I want to strip it all the way down and make a new finish or not. For sure this is going to take way longer than a month and a half like when I first got it, mostly because I am more picky now.

Ordering motor parts is, well, not going to be fun. The bigger they are, the more the bill is. And the springs are the big ones too, not the little springs.

I've been looking at some of the ideas a few other fellows have and it looks like you can get away with using tap washers on the motor board to replace the worn-out fiber ones. I got that idea from "mrrgstuff" on YouTube - - Excellent channel with a lot of gramophone content.

If I didn't have car problems I'd be hunting up some denatured alcohol and working on the finish, but I may need to go work on the enamel finish for the car. Still deciding.

One thing making me want to completely strip the Victrola, Jonsheff-style, is that they genuinely look better fixed. Nobody is going to cry over the loss of an "original" XIV when most collectors won't buy them anyway.

VanEpsFan1914 wrote: Thu May 04, 2023 2:19 pm I can't quite decide whether I want to strip it all the way down and make a new finish or not.

Take your time and learn on something smaller. Mahogany is less forgiving than oak and will look poorly refinished if you have not worked with it before.

James.

Roaring20s wrote: Thu May 04, 2023 2:34 pm

VanEpsFan1914 wrote: Thu May 04, 2023 2:19 pm I can't quite decide whether I want to strip it all the way down and make a new finish or not.

Take your time and learn on smaller cabinets. Mahogany is less forgiving than oak and will look poorly refinished if you have not worked with it before.


James.

Interesting that. I didn't know it was THAT bad to handle. I've worked on walnut and on plenty of oak machines (Standards and Homes and small victrolas.) Grain filler is essential on these and mahogany looks plain bad without it. Black grain filler helps stuff pop. I still won't touch rosewood at this point but thought mahogany would be simple enough.

I may hold off because the car needs painted and I have half a gallon of International Harvester white tractor enamel. The objective is so it won't rust.

If there is enough finish left on it, you may want to try the denatured alcohol route first. Just be sure to not to go over it more than once and letting it dry completely. If it gets tacky as you wipe it will give you fits, especially on the large surfaces. It would be best if you can find an old trashed piece of furniture to experiment on.

James.