Experimenting with Rexine Reattachment Today

[Lah Ca]

I acquired a pre-war carrier case for 12" records a while back. It is in pretty good condition over all, but there were bubbles in the rexine and some of the edges were lifting and coming loose.

So I experimented with Weldbond glue (because I have it) and a syringe. I wanted to try this on something I cared less about than a portable gramophone.

For bubbles you have to poke a hole at either end before injecting the glue, and you have to be careful not to inject too much. The second hole allows you to work the excess glue out. The glue largely seals/fills the holes.

The beveled point of the syringe's needle allows the needle to get in under the edge of lifting edges if the flat of the bevel is placed flat against the surface of the case.

Clean up is with water and a damp cloth. Clean up is more of a task at first when you haven't quite got the skill of it all yet.

I had treated the case with a couple of coats of a neutral shoe cream, and this made clean up quite a lot easier.

I am quite pleased with the results. Now I just have to trim some fly away threads and touch up a few areas where the finish was off the rexine.

[Inigo]

We're eager to see the results and to enjoy your success...

[Lah Ca]

Not all that exciting I suppose. It is a case that was mostly full of 1930s Japanese records.

It is interesting that the hinges and latches, while very old, are not original to the case. There are slight indentations in the shape of different hardware. It dates to a time when people got things fixed.

It had obviously sat on a concrete basement floor at some time because the rexine was loose and or bubbled along the bottom and the bottoms of the front, back, and side panels.

You can still see areas where things were bubbled and loose, easily if you know where they were. Mostly this is because the substrate under the rexine was also damaged. It is all pretty solid now.

[jamiegramo]

I think you’ve done an excellent job and I can’t see any obvious puncture marks where you had to inject the glue.

[Inigo]

It looks very nice! Good job!

[Lah Ca]

I think you’ve done an excellent job ....

Thanks.

... I can’t see any obvious puncture marks where you had to inject the glue.

Look at the picture of the bottom of the case. It is the fourth picture down. Look in the top right corner to the left of the metal foot. You can see the two puncture marks at either end of what had been one of the smaller bubbles. This was the first area I worked on, and I was still working out technique. I got better as I went along.

And if you look carefully, you can see the same problem in the last picture. I wasn't as good at getting things done quickly enough, getting the glue spread evenly, and getting the excess completely out (I was still injecting too much glue), and I wasn't as good at not ripping up the cardboard substrate with the needle. My slowness and my damaging of the cardboard allowed the damaged cardboard to swell a little as it absorbed the glue.

[Lah Ca]

It looks very nice! Good job!

Thanks.

[Lah Ca]

I should add that my other rexine/felt reattachment technique, ironing it with a clothes iron on high heat (with terry towel between the rexine and the iron) to reset the glue, does not work on cardboard.

It can sometimes work on metal or wood if hide glue was used.

However, what ironing did in this case was flatten and stiffen the rexine making it easier to reattach with glue.