This 1912 Edison "Fireside" had been in a fire and was purchased for $20. The first step was disassembling the machine and taking notes of each damaged or missing part.
The oak cabinet was replaced with one from old stock so we had to pore fill, and give it 6 coats of shellac along with a new cabinet decal. The cabinet received 10 coats of hand rubbed varnish for its final finish. Now it looks like it would have originally.
We next stripped the bed-plate, then pore-filled it like the factory originally did. This removed all imperfections in the castings. It was then primed, and painted a very dark black. Decals were hand applied, smoothed, aged, and shellacked in order to give it the faint "orange tinge" they came with. The bed-plate received 6 coats of varnish.
The motor was fully rebuilt to factory specs. All nickel work on the machine was restored and re-nickeled. We machined a custom mandrel locking ring because the original was missing. The horn was an original from my collection.
Once the machine was re-assembled we hand stitched the drive belt. This beautiful machine runs perfectly and belongs us.
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