The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I started working on my Homophone again today, and ran into a bit of a problem.
I discovered the join in the top right corner of the horn has come apart about 2" at the opening.
The horn is nailed into the cabinet, so if I try removing the 2 dozen or so nails, I'm more than likely going to dent up the edges of the horn.
When I try to push the split back together, I can only get about half of the join to close. I could probably resolder what I can, and maybe bridge the rest with solder, but I'm a bit worried that the heat could scorch the wood.
Then I thought I could maybe just bog the join with auto putty, or leave it as is.

So I'm wondering which way to go.
What would you do?

Tricky one. As its a small split I think I would be temped just to putty it in from behind and colour the putty so it can't be seen. However is the split stable? or is it likely to get bigger? You could always stabalise it with solder to stop it getting worse and then just finish it off with putty. I suppose it depends how neat you think you can get the solder.

RJ

Shane

I would definitely solder it but by using a very small soldering iron so the heat does not damage the wood. The split is not that big so you should be able to fill it quite easily and then rub it down to get a nice flat joint. If you plan to repaint the horn, you won't then see it, if not, it'll probably just end up looking like an area of paint loss - no big deal either way.

I recently soldered the bell of a morning glory horn which had a two inch split into it by doing just that. I couldn't match the colour and I certainly wouldn't have repainted the horn in my case, so I just left it looking shiny and bare metal where the joint was. The person who bought the machine from me, said he was happy to leave it exactly as I'd done it.

Hi All,
O.K. here is where JB Weild comes in-if you can get a clamp in there and if you can get it to work on both sides mix it up- spread it in and clamp. By the way weilding clamps come in some very long throat sizes 24-40". If that does not work-drill a few holes through the horn put in the JB Weild and use the screws to pull it together. Yes I know -holes-after you are done fill those sand them and use an acid etch avaible at stained glass stores to color the lead, brass or copper that they use it will make the metal look like it was never touched.
If I can help -let me know
Abe Feder

I would try and pinch it together as much as I could, and then solder. It would keep the stress off of it cracking or pulling apart more. You could then us JB Weld on the back side to strengthen it and give it some rigidity. Just my thoughts.

G-Shane,

I am not sure what Bog Putty is, but I would either leave it as is, or if you want to seal it for sound quality reasons, I would use a little silicon caulk from the back.

Brad

Brad,

Based on the quote below, I believe he’s talking about something like Bondo:

gramophoneshane wrote:Then I thought I could maybe just bog the join with auto putty, or leave it as is.

I’ve seen very nice (and practically undetectable) repairs done with it, although I think that soldering it first might be advisable, just to be certain that it doesn’t widen.

— MordEth