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Old 3rd Mar 2011, 11:11 pm   #1
Big Band Heaven
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About 5 years ago I purchased a Victor radiogram in need of complete restoration. It dated from 1927 and the thing that attracted me was the wonderful walnut cabinet and the fact that this machine featured the first record auto changer. Another draw was the fact that this model had one of the very first modern type of paper cone loud speakers.

The only difficulty with the machine was that the cabinet was in such dreadful condition. However I have recently managed to find a replacement cabinet - and it arrived here today. I thought I would share a few photos just after the packing box had been removed. There is some minor repair work to do on this cabinet as some vaneer has lifted and there are a few scrape marks. One of the bun feet has a crack in it which will need to be repaired so I am glad the cabinet arrived at my house on its back. This will make repair easy - the only difficult will be getting it back on its feet again as the cabinet is walnut and weights about 300lbs!

I plan to work on the cabinet over the next few weeks and I will post some more photos as work progresses.
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Old 3rd Mar 2011, 11:23 pm   #2
Mark the Mender
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Default Re: A work in progress

Now that is a nice cabinet!

I look forward to seeing this in all it's glory

cheers Mark
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Old 3rd Mar 2011, 11:26 pm   #3
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Default Re: A work in progress

A few more pictures of the cabinet
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Old 3rd Mar 2011, 11:28 pm   #4
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Here is a scan of a leaflet issued for christmas 1927 adversing this model which is the 9-55. Cost in 1927 $1500.
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Old 3rd Mar 2011, 11:45 pm   #5
mark pirate
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Default Re: A work in progress

Can't wait to see a pic of the chassis

Mark
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Old 4th Mar 2011, 3:14 pm   #6
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Default Re: A work in progress

Thats lovely .I assume the doors are bi fold and unconventionally hinge in the middle of the panel ? Looks like it as theres a line running right through the horizontals . Looks to be an easy resto which is good .How bad was the original, totally un saveable ? You were lucky finding another cabinet
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Old 4th Mar 2011, 7:41 pm   #7
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Hi what puzzles me is how come you received it in one piece .

Nearly everything purchase arrives in bits .

Good luck with the restoration , Mick.
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Old 4th Mar 2011, 11:04 pm   #8
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Yes I was very lucky to find another cabinet as Victor shipping records show that only 2,046 of these were made. All in the last quarter of 1927 and a few in the first quarter of 1928. I saw it on ebay and managed to negotiate a very good price...but then I had to factor in the shipping costs as it was located in the States and it had to be crated and shipped to me here in NZ.

The crate was damaged in transit however and this has resulted in some marks on the front of the cabinet but the use of some stain of the correct colour should hide this ok. I am just very relieved that the damage was only slight.

I have made a start on sticking the vaneer of the sides of the cabinet back down but as I don't have any clamps I wedged some wood against the vaneer once I had carefully applied the glue. Seems to have worked a treat. Today I need to do the other side and attend to the cracked bun foot. There are a number of marks on the cabinet which I need to sort out and some small damage to one of the cabinet doors which I need to look at.

There is work to do on the inside which I will examine and detail and photograph when I get the cabinet upright. However I should be able to remove the damaged bits from my old cabinet and re use them in this better one. But more on that when I have sorted out the vaneers on the outside.

The cabinet is divided into two halves with the left hand compartment being the gramophone and the right hand side the radio and speaker compartment. Interestingly the left hand door is in one piece but made to look like two separate doors with a shallow groove having been cut down the middle of the front. The hinges are located on the left hand side. There are two door to the radio side of the cabinet - with one opening to the left and the other to the right. Doing it this way it all looks symetrical.

The old cabinet is in very poor condition as it has suffered from being wet over a peiod of time. It only affects the left hand side of that cabinet but the damage is severe with parts of the cabinet having rotted and lots of the vaneer missing. The joints of the cabinet have also started to come apart - which when the hole thing weights 300lbs isn't great! I figured to fix the existing cabinet and source appropriate vaneers would be very expensive and so the next best alternative was to find an alternative cabinet - this one came along at just the right time

I will take some pictures of the electronics from the mamoth machine when I get to the stage of moving them from the old cabinet to this one.

I just hope I can manage to stand it upright without damage to the feet!
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Old 4th Mar 2011, 11:33 pm   #9
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Default Re: A work in progress

This will certainly be a worthwhile restoration of a rare radiogram, from a bygone era the like of which will never be seen again. Good luck!
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Old 6th Mar 2011, 2:52 am   #10
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OK, so the loose side vaneers have now been glued back in place and the damage bun foot has also been repaired and glued.

However in looking for any other things that need to be dealt with before I turn the cabinet upright I discovered an unexpected issue. On the underside of the cabinet is a small wooden box which houses a light bulb which illuminated a multi faced cut glass red jewel pilot light. (see the picture in my first lot of photos posted). To protect the wooden box from damage / singeing from the heat of a light bulb in an enclosed space the box is lined with small pieces of metal. On the underside of the cabinet next to where the bulb sits is another piece of metal (this time with a hole in the middle to allow heat from the bulb to ventilate into the inside of the main cabinet. However on closer inspection between the piece of metal attached to the underside of the cabinet and the cabinet itself is a gray papery material - fibrous in appearance. I suspect it to be a soft form of asbestos. See photo below. Whilst I see no need to be overly alarmed by its presence because it is a soft papery form which seems to be degrading I plan to remove it. If it had been hard and in stable condition I would of just treated the edges with a PVA / water mix and left it in situ.

I plan to wet the area with a water spray and then cover the area with a clear plastic bag. I will leave enough space to get a small flat screwdriver underneather the metal / asbestos so that I can prise it off. Its held in position by four small nails. I plan to keep eveything wet to prevent fibres spreading. Once removed I will seal the part in plastic and take it to my local dump for disposal. That area of the underside of the cabinet I will treat the area with a spray of PVA and water. As the hole ventilated into the main cabinet I will also spray the inside of the cabinet with the same spray to seal down any fibres which have floated into the inside of the cabinet.

This might seem like overkill but I want to make sure that given the poor condition of the asbestos that I treat it with respect and minimise any stray fibre issues.
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Old 6th Mar 2011, 3:53 pm   #11
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Hi,

What a gorgeous project; this will look so good once restored and I'll be following this thread with a lot of interest.

Kind regards and good luck, Col.
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Old 6th Mar 2011, 10:52 pm   #12
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Hi Col,
yes the cabinet is lovely isn't it. I found the machine originally in a shop in Somerset in the UK and just fell in love with it. Even though I didn't have the cash to buy it right off I admired it from afar over two years. I managed to negotiate with the seller and got it for a good price mainly due to the damage caused by water to the cabinet. Which thankfully had only affected the left hand side of the cabinet - well away from the radio chassis, amp and loud speaker. Only the gramophone components were damaged along with the cabinet. But as the auto changer was used in two different Victor models I have been able to source replacements for the rusted / damaged parts.

When we moved from the UK to NZ last year I had it all crated up and brought here so that I can finish the project. Now that I have a very decent replacement cabinet (a very lucky find!) I can now make this a superb machine. As I move forward with the restoration I'll feature progress reports and lots of pictures. It is such an unusual machine that it will be nice to know that it is documented somewhere for others to see. My only question will be what to do with the old damaged cabinet. It has some wonderful walnut vaneers on it - I expect I will store it for a time.

BTW - I have been following your TV cabinet rebuild and I very much admre the work you have been doing and the considerable dilligence on sourcing quality materials. You have set a very high bar with work of superb quality.
Richard.
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Old 6th Mar 2011, 11:58 pm   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Band Heaven View Post
This might seem like overkill but I want to make sure that given the poor condition of the asbestos that I treat it with respect and minimise any stray fibre issues.
You're quite right to be cautious; your planned method of work seems very sensible, and all being well there will be no fibres released.

On the positive side, if you were to put a prominent label on the back of the cabinet saying "Caution - possible asbestos fibre contamination" then at least you will protect the radiogram from ever being thrown into a general waste skip in the future!
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Old 7th Mar 2011, 1:44 pm   #14
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Hi,

Thank you for the comments Richard it is very kind of you.

I'm interested in how you are going to finish this cabinet and how you go about it; all such information is valuable to novices; all too often cabinetwork is shown completed with little detail of how this was accomplished.

The original detailing on this cabinet is superb and to get such work done these days would be extremely expensive. It's such a shame so many large cabinets get broken up because people don't have space for them or the valves are stripped out because they are worth more. Your cabinet Richard is a delight and well worth restoring; I wish you the best of luck with it and quite envy you such a restoration.

Is the original cabinet beyond repair or can you restore it at some later date?

Kind regards, Col.
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