antique repairs ... an appreciation

lookin good Dan! Bringing her back to her glory!

Yep, a well-done repair can be more challenging and satisfying sometimes than a new project. I typically get repair projects from friends and neighbors, never turned one down yet. Did a a patio chair yesterday, a really cheap chinee thing that collapsed under a heavyweight, but iit's now better than new.

thanks for the post!

brings back memories

Boy does that bring back memories for me as well. Several years ago my wife ran an antique business. I was tasked with doing repairs and/or rebuilds. Seeing pictures of the parts reminded me of a time when she came home with a big cardboard box of pieces of wood. Hands it to me and says, "This is a rocking chair. Can you fix it?" Took me several weekends of gluing pieces, fabrication, design, etc. but I eventually got it. Wish I still had a picture of that "masterpiece".

Not only can you learn alot about furniture construction but you can also learn what NOT to do.

Bill

I have a friend that sometimes brings me chairs to repair so that he can re-cane them. The problem is, he seems to find the most unusual chairs. The last four that I have done for him bout made me pull whats left of my hair out. They had broken arms. The arms though, wrapped around in a curve pattern I'd never seen before. They proved quite a challenge and I complained plenty. When they were done though, it was quite a satisfaction to repair and keep alive something that would have probably been in the garbage heap otherwise.

Dan,

I like your workbench work surface. I think it would make an excellent table top in my dining room…

Keep up the good work and remember…

Be Careful!

Herb

Holy crap!
I didn't notice that until Herb brought it up. Is that your normal work bench? What kind of wood is that? Is that a solid slab? How long and wide is it?
Ok. I gotta back off now. Computers and drooling don't mix well.

Dan:

You hit the nail on the Head!! Perhaps a few more WW Guys should consider this line of Woodwork. It would bring me a Great Deal of Satisfaction to do something like this! Reviving an Old Master Piece!

YEP! Your Work Bench is Amazing.

So! Picture #2.. Are the Blue Clamps Holding the Same Piece as The Orange Clamps that are Holding the Place where the …. Oh! Forget it! I'm all confused! (No Comments from you other Clowns…LOL..)

Going to go have a Look See at your Link.

EDIT: Just had a look at your Blog Site…WOW!! The Claro Slab Table is Amazing!! (Had a problem with Google/YouTube Sign in Account but got it straightened away and left a Comment) Maybe I should use eBlog?

Rick

Nice save! Your right we do tend to forget the importance of the oldie but googies! Great looking clock you worked on.

NICE work on a beautiful clock

Super job on the clock, and I agree with the comments about pleasure gained from repairing, and especially the opportunities for learning!

I recently repaired an old gramophone (HMV - but known in the US as Victrola (?) - Model 13A) and the opportunity for learning how to pack two 14 foot long 1 1/4 inch wide springs into something the size of a treacle tin was immense!

Getting them out had been another problem as the graphite grease used for lubrication 60 - 70 years ago had lost all its volatile components, and turned to black putty! Also some 'grease' had earlier leaked over the mechanism, and it was a scraping job to remove it as no solvent seemed to work - probably as there was nothing to dissolve!

The most rewarding aspect, however, involved the fact that the instrument had been the stand for a flower pot for many years, and water had obviously leaked at various times, bleaching a large white circle, and lifting the veneer so it curled up like wood shavings. I scraped away old glue under the veneer as best I could, and 'squidged' some new adhesive underneath and clamped one area down very hard! When the clamps were released, the veneer looked OK, so I did the same for other areas, even slitting the tops of bubbles to get some glue in. It didn't look bad when finished, so I tried some varnish remover on the area outside the white ring, but really ended up sanding - very carefully - to get the whole top back to bare wood.

I applied about 9 coats of varnish in all, to get the colour back near the rest of the case, but I had to use some coloured touch-up pens between layers to try to blend in the edge of the white ring which I could not risk sanding too far. I searched the internet for 'acoustically transparent' speaker material to replace the silk at the front where the sound emerged, as that had been in tatters, and I think it ended up looking quite good.



As mentioned in the initial post, I got as much satisfaction out of re-creating the piece's original look as if I had made the complete instrument myself, and my only regret is that I didn't take a 'before' picture for comparison.

Hi, Dan!
It is really nice to see that people are repairing these beautiful pieces instead of just discarding them to get new ones.

So much of what is on the market today is crap. Even with all the people "going green" and recycling, there seems to be more waste than ever. It does my heart good to see you restoring such a beautiful piece. I really enjoyed your story!

Sheila

As Sheila said its nice to see that beautiful old clock repaired and its also nice to know there are people willing to spend the money to have it restored instead of trashing it. I guess the fact that it dates from the 1840's makes that common sense. Very nice work.

How very satisfying to rescue such a very fine peice. Your work displays the kind of passion for excellence that challenges and drives many of us. Details make the difference. Thanks for sharing.

Well done!!!!! Man that is a beautiful clock too.

Which is why few of these clocks still have their case floors. I recently had a customer who had the same problem, a good thing too as the clock was infested with termites. They were starting to work their way into the floor.

I didn't do the case work but instead took care of the mechanism. If your customer needs someone to work on the movement I can recommend a highly qualified person in Newfane.

Troy

You saved a beautiful clock cabinet. Great results.

thanks you all for your comments … it was a fun and rewarding job … and, as my friend in newfane, ray bates said,
"that is a magnificent example of a Willard Roxbury case" and i agree. regards to troy in melorse florida … ray bates in newfane is the man for clock repairs … ...