Ivory 'Bakelite' Repair

[FABphones]

I have a few pieces of Ivory 'Bakelite' in need of repair. Some are open hairline (and larger) cracks, some are missing pieces. My favoured epoxy putty is Milliput, but they don't have ivory in their colour range.

Does anyone know of a good ivory colour match epoxy putty? Or a pigment I can add to for example, Milliput 'silver grey'? Or does anyone know of another method for repair?

Thanks for any help.

[TelePlay]

     Regular Member Post

This topic is one of the best on the forum with respect to repairing Bakelite

     http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=14268.0



Bob did a marvelous job on that finger wheel but I think it was a lot of trial and error testing before determining the right amount of different colors added to clear resin and how to add and stir the mottled dark colors to match the finger wheel.

With a "pure" color, such as white or ivory, it is just getting the coloring to match but with a "pure" color these is probably less room for any color difference than there would be with a mottle Bakelite.

Bob showed it is possible to do it well but did not get into the details of how he did it. Clear resins and colors for them are readily available, not cheap or in small quantity, but it is possible based on Bob's work. He did give an overview of the task in this reply.

     http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=14268.msg148876#msg148876

I don't know if there is a better way other than resin to color fill missing Bakelite to near new appearance. If so, someone can post it or their way of doing it. Black is easy to fix, colors are something else.

[Jim Stettler]

That is an amazing fix.

[FABphones]

Thanks for the link, that is exactly the method I am currently looking into.

I did search CRPF prior to starting this thread, and found some of Bob's posts but nothing in any detail re the process (I saw some lovely examples of his work, which is encouraging). One thread mentioned grinding bakelite into a powder, but I am unsure - how best to do this?

I'm putting together an order of pigments and resin and will update to let you all know how I get on, but in the meantime if anyone knows where I can find more info, please add to this thread.

Many thanks.