What was your most difficult restoration?

[CurtA]

I posted this topic on The Talking Machine Forum back in 2020, but because of carelessness/neglect all of the pictures from this post (along with all the others) have been lost.  If you participated in that thread, or have a restoration you would like to feature, please post or re-post it here...

 

I know that a lot of great machines have been brought back from the dead and just wondered if some of the most difficult and rewarding restorations might be documented and preserved...

[CurtA]

Rooster #2 restoration:

https://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=49722&p=295246&hilit=rooster+%232#p295246

 

https://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=50415

[Guest]

Mine was this Standard. Went from this... to the finished product

 

[phonogfp]

In 2009 I stumbled across an empty cabinet for a Rosenfield Illustrated Song Machine in a shop about an hour from home.  I was pretty intimidated at the prospect of ever completing such a dinosaur, but I also knew that if I left it behind, I'd never have another opportunity.  Here's what the cabinet looked like when I brought it home (you can't see the florescent light installed inside!):

 

 

I was very fortunate in that another collector out of state had just acquired THREE of these cabinets - also empty.  He was in contact with a third guy who had an original which was in pieces.  This third fellow was willing to have any cast iron parts we needed duplicated at a local foundry.  Meanwhile, we began looking for the best AZ Graphophone mechanisms we could find.

 

Over the next two years, I drove to Ohio a few times to pick up boxes of parts.  It turned out that - despite the third guy's promises of assembly guidance - I was pretty much on my own.  Once he had his final payment, he told me that he doubted if I'd ever be able to get the machine working.  Nice, huh?

 

Well, by February 2011, I had it working and it has worked very well ever since.  Although it's a Rube Goldberg-ish contraption, once properly adjusted, it's remarkably reliable with only occasional lubrication.

 

I was fortunate that the empty cabinet had retained its original instructions:

 

 

Here's the machine taking shape in my shop.  No wiring or drive chains yet:

 

 

Here's the completed interior:

 

Here's a shot of the peep show in operation while the record plays:

 

...And here's what the machine looks like closed up and ready to play as if it were in an arcade:

 

Speaking of arcade, it turned out that I put together the other fellows three ISMs as well, so for a few months in 2014 my shop resembled an arcade.  A broken-down arcade!  here, I'm installing the peep show in one of the cabinets.  A nearly-complete cabinet sits at the right.  A cabinet to the left is in pieces:

 

Another view, courtesy of Barbie:

 

This shot shows the first of three nearly complete, with the playing mechanisms of the next two in the foreground.  A few years later, another collector asked me if I'd get his example working, which I did.  In all, I've worked on 5 of the 17-18 known examples of the Rosenfield Illustrated Song Machine.  The first one was the hardest!

 

George P.

 

 

[melvind]

A video of it playing would be fun 🤓 though it might be hard to show the images. It looks quite complicated but very interesting.

[CurtA]

How cool was that, George?  A near impossible restoration leading to 5 working machines...

[CurtA]

I have recently witnessed a some what similar restoration, but not by me.  Mike Lund bought a non-working coin-op Berliner, which was put together by some unknown tinkerer that obviously didn't have a clue.  It had some nice original parts on it that Mike needed for an incomplete one in his collection that needed completion.  

 

What he had left over was a cabinet that had a poorly made top and 4 sides of the cabinet and bottom.  They appeared to be kind of sketchy with a coin drawer, which seemed questionable, when no other example could be found.  Mike offered me the remains for $50, since he knew I had a trademark machine that had some issues and would at least present well as a coin-op without the coin-op mechanism.  I bought it, thinking it would look cool just as a display.  I knew there was no way to find an original coin-op mechanism or even parts.  

 

When I got it home, I discovered a stamped DGAG serial number on top of one of the sides and the faded remains of an angel decal.  I also found that the cabinet came from the factory with the drawer (the finger joints on the drawer side stopped where the drawer started and the front matched the cabinet grain where it was cut out).  

 

I returned the cabinet to Mike and explained why I thought the lower part was original, but the top was poorly done replacement.  The problem then became where to find the missing hardware from the top and the entire coin-op works.  I traded Mike the trademark donor machine I had and suggested that we talk to our friend, Bill Beam, who is a phonograph collector and watch and clock repairman.  Over the years I had seen Bill hand make missing clock and phonograph parts.  

 

Mike brought him the cabinet parts and donor machine along with an original complete Berliner coin-op to copy and Bill agreed to try making all the missing parts.  Bill had them for a couple of weeks and Mike and I drove up the week before last to see the progress.  Amazingly, Bill had almost completed the project and had it working using original German coins.

 

Here is the result:

 

 

[phonogfp]

A very worthy project and worthwhile save!  I don't know Bill Beam, but we need more like him.

 

George P.