Tuesday, March 22, 2016

New Felt Turntable Pad

I do not like the green turntable pad that   came with my Edison A100.  

I went to Jo-Ann Fabric and bought some wool felt for $3 ($18 a yard, 50% coupon, needed 1/3 yard)

I removed the original felt from the turntable



and then used rubber cement to first
glue down an under piece of felt


and then glue down the new wine color piece.


Something to watch put for: If, like me, you had the original felt pad with an additional felt pad added you will need to  maintain that height or adjust your reproducer height.  The image below shows the limit pin with the reproducer sitting on a reproduction with only one piece of turntable felt.  It is too low, it should be out of the taper area.  Adding a second layer of felt fixed the problem or the same could have been done by adjusting the mechanics




Saturday, March 19, 2016

The Metal Pieces

I could not get the metal pieces clean so I cheated and painted them...

The Final Product

The front grill still needs repair, but I am happy with the results so far.....


Repaired bottom shelf


Leg round repaired with Mohawk Epoxy


Bottom shelf finish


Overall Finish


Ebay crank installed


Below are the before pictures
before

before


before





Friday, March 18, 2016

Installing the Hinge Piece

Next I glued on my new hinge piece and clamped it overnight.  

Next I reinstalled the motor so I wouldn't have the lid in the way later.

When I removed the hinges during the disassembly process, I was not sure if the mix of phillips head and slotted head screws were original.  I looked at Ebay listings for Edison hinge and screw listings and found that in many cases this is how the hinges came.

I assembled the hinges to the lid and then temporarily held the assembly over the cabinet and marked the new hinge hole screw locations with a pencil.  This ensured I had the correct hinge to hinge spacing.  I then drilled a pilot hole for each of the screws since I didn't want to split the new wood piece.

I removed the hinges from the lid and installed them on the hinge piece as shown below.



Finally I reinstalled the lid lock lever and the lid.....All done!

Picture of lid lock taken during disassembly and prior to cleaning.

Note: To clean the metal hinges And other metal pieces I soaked them in denatured alcohol for a few minutes and then gently cleaned with 0000 steel wool

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Ebay Crank

I finally bought a crank off of Ebay...with shipping the cost was $22.  I got lucky, it was listed as a "wind up" and not as a "crank" which meant not many bidders.  

Search for "Edison" on Ebay;  many great things show up!




Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Final Assembly of the Cabinet

First place one of the side pieces on a flat protected surface.  Next vertically glue in the bottom shelf,  rear panel, mid cabinet shelf, and front piece (that goes between lid and grill). Tap as required with a rubber mallet to ensure they are seated.  Next carefully align and glue in the remaining side piece on top.  Tap in place with rubber mallet.  It is very helpful to have a second person help.  Next reinstall the 4 screws that hold the bottom shelf to the legs.  Finally, use bar clamps to hold everything together while the glue drys.


Cabinet after assembly and clamping


Standing it up.  Notice the rear hinge piece is not installed yet.


A front view


These are the bottom shelf screws that need to be reinstalled.

Monday, March 14, 2016

Putting it back together

With all the pieces finished it is time to put it back together.

You will need Hide Glue, a rubber mallet, and some bar clamps.  I purchased the clamps from Harbor Freight for around $4 each.

The key to putting the cabinet back together is to glue the legs on the two side panels first and letting them dry overnight.  If you do this all the other pieces will go together in proper order.


3 clamps on a side panel with legs and a towel to protect the finish from the clamps

Friday, March 11, 2016

Apply a Finish

After repairing the shelf I moved to the lid.       There were a couple of deep scratches on the lid's top, so I sanded those out.  I left the curved sides alone since they were in good shape.

I next applied the Minwax Red Mahogony stain to all of the pieces.  Everything looks beautiful.  

I then brushed on a coat of shellac to all the pieces, sanded it with fine grit sandpaper, and then applied one more coat of shellac.  I was happy with the look, so I stopped at two coats.  On the legs and curved sides of the lid I used a spray sellac, not a brush on.  I also made sure to shellac the underside of the pieces to help seal in any of the "old" smell.  I did not shellac or stain any of the glue joints.

The shellac is available at Home Depot







Thursday, March 3, 2016

Hinge Piece

The piece of wood that the lid and hinges attach to was severely cracked.  I have seen other reports of people having a similar issue.  I believe that the piece sees too much stress and finally fails after 100 years.

I decided to remake the piece out of oak.  Luckily Home Depot has oak in stock that is the same thickness.

I will say that a router with a 1/4 routing bit is needed to cut the bottom groove and the inset hinge areas.  I am not sure how else you would cut the bottom groove.

I used the original piece as a template.


Cracked

New Piece


Stain

Since this is oak, I needed to apply many coats of the Minwax Stain to get the correct color.  I used Red Mahogany color stain.