The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I'm working on a Vic VI that I recently purchased. I've taken the machine completely apart and to clean the gold parts, I've give them a short bath in ammonia and a gentle scrub with an old tooth brush and rinsed with tap water. I hope you can see the dramatic results on the gold corner column caps. Jerry Blais

Jerry,

They look great! and here I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with my columbia parts....Thanks

Yes, ammonia works really great with cleaning gold and does not seem to harm it in any way. A side benefit I discovered when working on the gold plated parts on my Edison A250 is that with the soak the old clear coating Edison put over the gold (which had long since turned really grungy) sloughed right off.

Clay

Hey Jerry, I have had good results in using oven cleaner, but you have to be careful and not scrub it too soon before it has time to work and then rinsing in water. Is the ammonia you are using full strength or is it diluted? Looks like you are getting great results!

Wes

Wes, I was using regular ammonia from Safeway used at full strength from the bottle. Jerry

Wes, Jerry,

Does anyone know what the old clear coating that these companies (Victor or Edison) used on top of their gold plated parts?

Best,

Garret

Garrett, I wish I could help with your question but I can't. I do know that you must be careful. I use a mild acid to remove rust from chrome bike parts. It works so well that I thought I'd try it on a Columbia nickel horn. The same product took off the tarnish and the nickel. I was down to brass in a very short time. It is good that I tried it on a very low quality horn.
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Has anyone tried denatured alcohol or lacquer thinner to remove the finish over gold plating? I'd try it first with a low end spare part. Jerry

Garrett, I believe the coating was shellac. This explains why ammonia works so well on the gold plated parts-it dissolves shellac.

I read this post with great interest back in November.
I tried some ammonia soaked on a paper towel and left sitting for a few minutes on a spare victor gold plated needle cup.
The gold (or shellac coating) became very soft, so I stopped the works.
Was it just the shellac coating that softens?
Gene

gemering wrote:I read this post with great interest back in November.
I tried some ammonia soaked on a paper towel and left sitting for a few minutes on a spare victor gold plated needle cup.
The gold (or shellac coating) became very soft, so I stopped the works.
Was it just the shellac coating that softens?
Gene

It was most likely the coating. When I cleaned the gold parts on one of my Diamond Disc machines with ammonia, the coating came right off, leaving the gold looking great.

Clay