Gramophone restoration

[tfischer]

Time for another project thread. This one is actually a project restart after a very long hiatus.

My mom picked up this gramophone for me at an auction circa 1993 after I saw it in the listing and couldn't be there. It was pretty badly water damaged but I thought it would be a great piece to restore. Back at that time, I stripped off all the finish (which was badly damaged), and used wood filler to attempt to repair some broken veneer. Then the project stalled, for years, as life intervened, I moved further away, got married, etc.

About 2009 or so, I brought it to my shop with the intent to restart it. But the crank and numerous other parts that I had removed when stripping the finish had gone missing. We looked all over mom's place numerous times and couldn't find them. And I couldn't find the motivation to start working on it without the pieces to complete the project.

I always said that as a last resort, we'd find them when going through the house after Mom died. Well... Mom passed away last month. We were staying at the house for her funeral, and, I completely accidentally located the parts, not even looking for them. So now I'm starting the restoration again. I'm actually glad I didn't finish the project in the 90s, as I have a lot better skills and tools today. Filling holes with wood putty and staining over them isn't going to fly by my current standards!

The first picture shows the condition I left it at in the early 90s: The original finish stripped off, etc. The front "speaker grille" was very badly water damaged. I still have the original, shown in another pic, but I'll have to recreate it.

The next pic shows the inside, which is in the best condition. I'm going to try to keep this part as original as possible. The gramophone actually works - a couple pieces of the "tonearm" were cracked when I got it and were taped. I used superglue to fix it more permanently. It plays records just fine.

One of the joints on the top was separating badly so I opened it up even further to repair it. I also removed the top panel. It's pretty water damaged as well but as I mentioned in the previous pic, I want to save it as it's the inside of the lid also. I plan on stabilizing it, re-venering the top surface, and putting it back, keeping the inside original. The third pic shows the project in this stage, and the 4th, it being clamped back together.

The last pic shows the original "speaker grille". It's hard to tell here but the laminations are all falling apart. I will use this as a template to cut out a new one. There is also supposed to be cloth on the back... you can purchase reproduction cloth today and I will do that.

More to come, including my first attempts at re-veneering!

[atgcpaul]

When was that gramophone made? Were the grooves in the older records further apart than they are today? What kind of wood is it? Mahogany?

In the one picture where the mitered corner appears to be separated, is it separated or has the veneer pulled off?

[tfischer]

These old machines play the "shellac" 78s. Definitely a coarser groove spacing than the 33's and 45 "microgrooves" that followed. I have a few, and will pick up some more on eBay after I finish the project.

I'm not an expert on wood identification but I'm assuming mahogany, and that's what I'll be using for the replacement pieces and veneering I'll be doing.

Not sure which picture you're talking about... if you're talking about the top with the huge gap, that's where I purposely separated it and then re-glued it. There are some other mitered corners with gaps that I still need to do some work on.

No idea how old this is. I can actually find very little about the brand online (the name escapes me and I'm at work now). It's wind-up so I'm assuming it's getting close to 100 years old, if it isn't already.

[atgcpaul]

Yes, i was talking about the mitered corner where there's a strap clamp laid across it.

I think if I had to reveneer whole sections, I'd explore hammer veneering with hot hide glue. I've never done it before but it seems like a good way to veneer in place.

Is there one of those cornucopia shaped speakers, too? I'm guessing there's no volume adjustment on it, right?

[tfischer]

Yes, i was talking about the mitered corner where there's a strap clamp laid across it.

I think if I had to reveneer whole sections, I'd explore hammer veneering with hot hide glue. I've never done it before but it seems like a good way to veneer in place.

Is there one of those cornucopia shaped speakers, too? I'm guessing there's no volume adjustment on it, right?

I'm going to reveneer the top (the piece I removed in the pictures) as well as the two doors on the front which cover record storage. I considered reveneering the sides and back as well, but they actually are in pretty good shape, except for the bottom inch or two. So my plan is to add a small trim molding to cover up that damage. The advantage is keeping the original wood for the most part, with the disadvantage of not being 100% historically accurate, but hopefully I'll do it in such a way that nobody would know unless you knew it wasn't supposed to be there.

The "horn speaker" is the large thing underneath the lid, which is currently missing its grille (the grill is in the last pic). There is a limited volume control which is essentially a door that gets pulled in front of it via a lever on the side... but it essentially goes from loud to very loud. You can buy different needles (you're supposed to replace the needle with every side of a record) that also can make it louder or softer.

It was some tabletop style players that had the huge horn that you're talking about.

-Tim