Genr'l Pot Metal Repair

[neophone]

Folks,

An old friend recently found a late model Victor portable at a yard sale and bought it for me as a gift. Mechanically and cosmetically it appears to be in good condition for the most part. However the tone-arm and the it's base were broken and swollen. The base was broken in two with a chunk missing and the lip on the base of the arm itself was partially missing and the U-Tube was frozen.

I decided this was a perfect piece to experiment on. I have put the base back together and am building up the missing chuck with J-B Weld. For the base of the tone-arm itself I first wrapped it with Saran Wrap and snapped the retaining ring in place (to form the channel that the ring fits in) and have slowly molded a new lip with the J-B Weld. The J-B Weld doesn't stick to the Saran Wrap. For the U-Tube I slowly forced it out of the socket and I used a medium grit sandpaper to grind it down and smoothed it with 000 steel wool.

I have a bit of "fine tuning" to do yet on the parts, but it seems to be a success. I hope to finally tackle that pot metal reproducer I mentioned in the other thread soon.

Regards,
J.

[henry]

Lookin' good, John!

[MordEth]

Having gotten to see those in person, I have to say: Neophone does great work. They’re perhaps even more impressive when you can handle them; apart from the difference in color between the repair and the original metal, the only difference is the color/material. If you were to inspect them by touch alone, you really cannot tell where they were repaired.

Now all he needs is Magical Metal Veneer™ to put over the repairs.

— MordEth