Cheney Talking Machine

[cooljjay]

New guy here in the group and first off the bat I want to share with you all the restoration of my cheney.

It would win any prizes for best restore but I am happy and its 100% better then what it was. When I first bought this, it was full of 90 years of mouse droppings, crank was frozen, motor was frozen, server rust from mouse pee, and extremely water damaged from sitting under a leaky roof. Have a look and post your commits.

The Ad

Larger photo farm3.static.flickr.com/2324/2615425140_0af569c33e_b.jpg

Before:




After

The grille cloth isn't that white it has a light gold floral pattern, flash was on



Short Video
www.youtube.com/watch?v=al4_6NVux38

[saxymojo]

Hi,
looks much better, job well done

Regards Marcel

[henry]

Nice job. Now it's presentable. The gold(?)-plated parts look great. What did you do to shine them up so? And can you give details about how you cleaned and refinished the cabinet?

BTW, how does it sound?

[cooljjay]

Henery, I simply polished the parts with this cool metal magic cleaner and polish made by waxie. I sprayed the parts with a little shellac to get the shine back. I debated on repainting them. The cabinet, I had to reglue a lot and I mean alot. I was going to replace a lot of veneer but english walnut cannot be found any longer so I patched everything with wood putty and had to replace about a 5" x 8" piece, I used black walnut instead. I then had to do a lot of sanding to smooth everything out and remove the stains from the top, and the many many chewed spots from the mice/rats. I then used a black walnut stain to stain everything and a oil base flat paint for the black highlights. then I used shellac to put a shine over the cabinet. the link to the video at the end is off it playing.

[larryh]

You know what strikes me here besides the great job of restoration your doing is how much it appears to be the same with a few changes to the Brunswick Console I had. I wonder if the same supplier made the cabinets?

I have a small London console edison I started to clean up today also. Still working on the Chippendale upright too. But the London model has damaged veneer torn loose about three inches along the whole left side. I ran a razor blade under it today to get it loose enough to attempt a solid glue down. Both doors need grill rebuilding also.. I found some old veneer pieces I have here and will be a good rainy day or evening project. The metal to it was fairly rusted too and I used steel wool on the parts. I will most likely wax them as it seems to bring out the shine. But I have used a spray lacquer with good results also.

Wonder if anyone has had any luck getting the old felt turntables to clean up when they have large darkened areas?

[cooljjay]

I was lucky, most of the chips around the top were in the black areas, so I was able to fill the paint them and no one can tell there are chips. I still have a few bubbles to deal with. when ever i find my super glue i will deal with that. Heres another project I am working on, its a sonora, when I paid 30$ for the cabinet it was in bad shape with that alligator finish, i really didn't want to redo it but i couldn't live with the finish, heres a before and after. still need a few parts if anyone has any.

Before:


After:

[neophone]

Cooljjay,

Welcome to the Edison Board! ;D It's very nice to have you over here. Bravo on two superb restorations. That Cheney in particular looks like a new machine.


Larry, I had good luck darkening faded turntable velour on my German Elekto-Grammophon with a concoction of boiled Rit dye applied sparingly with paint brush. If it's grease staining, I'd imagine the only way to restore the felt would be to try removing the grease with a chemical cleaner such as K2r Or a diluted application of bleach followed by a re-dying as I did with my portable.

Regards,
J.

[maroongem]

Talk about a before and after! That Chaney looks super!
I believe Brunswick Balke Collander made their own cabinets as they were already a well established maker of pooltables and complete wood bars for the saloons across the country prior to their entry in the phonograph field.

Bill

[rdshelly]

I have a Cheney Talking Machine with the original owners manual that I will give FREE to a collector. I have had it for 40 yrs and it is in good working condition. I live just North of San Francisco and have photos I can email to you if you are interested.

Roger Shelly
[e-mail]

[jandj]

You're no longer the new kid on the block. Last night my wife and I picked up a Cheney talking machine, same model as yours. Ours looks like it just came off the show room floor compared to what you had to start with, though much work is needed. Your's looks fabulous but all the details are hard to see from the one and only photo available to me on your board. Tips and tricks are what I'll be looking for, your board has already helped me out some. Do you know the vintage and possible value of the piece?
I'll try to post a picture on my board asap, it will be as received with just a cleaning and buffing after a light application of jocobean stain. Note the faceboard of the center door appears to be installed upside down compared to the only other two pictures I could find of the unit. To my knowledge the panel has never been removed.

Keep going,
jandj

[matty]

This is a copy of the ad cooljay had posted, but I don't know what year it appeared.
Maybe if you print it out, it might be more readable, and the page might be dated?