Success on an Ivory Crack!!

[WEBellSystemChristian]

A few few weeks ago, my dad pointed out that a type of resin he was using was an exact match for my Ivory 302 in terms of color; it even had the same level of translucency! We came up with the idea of attempting to use it on the huge crack in the front right corner, that eyesore that always makes me shudder inside when I walk past it. We finally decided to work on it today, with some pretty good results.

First, I put some masking tape on the inside of the housing, directly under the crack. The housing was still attached to the base, so we could measure how wide it needed to be; not too narrow, not too wide. The resin was poured into the top of the crack, and we let it cure until it was strong enough to hold the pressure from the housing on it's own. Next, with the housing off the base and resting so the rest of the crack was facing directly upwards, the resin could be poured in. I put tape all around the opening, so it couldn't run down the sides. After it cured, the housing could be rested on the base. Finished!

There isn't any part of that corner touching the base, so I'm not worried about it splitting. It's amazing how well the color matches the phone! There is still a lot of it smeared on the top, and I can't see it, apart from the uneven texture. I should mention that the color on the bottom of the crack is darker because it hasn't 100% cured yet. The top is cured, because it's thinner. The color is an impeccable match!

I'll still have to wetsand it and my dad will reinforce it with more resin from the back tomorrow, but it looks great, even now!

[HarrySmith]

Nice!

[compubit]

Good Deal!

I know it's a nice sense of accomplishment to "bring something back" that was previously thought to be unrepairable.  Can't wait to see it when all the curing, reinforcing and polishing is done!

Jim

[jsowers]

Wow! No wonder you cringed when you saw it. That was a really big crack. And a very good repair job too. Please share what resin you used in case someone else wants to try the same thing and keep us posted on the progress. There are plenty of cracked ivory 302s.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Wow! No wonder you cringed when you saw it. That was a really big crack. And a very good repair job too. Please share what resin you used in case someone else wants to try the same thing and keep us posted on the progress. There are plenty of cracked ivory 302s.

Thanks!

I'll let you guys know what type the resin is when I get home. It came from Hobby Lobby, but there were several other types there, so I'll take a picture of the box.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

This may have been what I used, but I'll still confirm it tonight. It also comes with other stuff that might be useful in, say, reproducing an ivory part:

http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/mini-casting-kit-579714/

[baldopeacock]

Christian,

It looks like that product comes with the material to make a mold.

Think it would be possible to produce a mold from the corner of an unbroken 302 housing and use that as the backing for the resin when you fill the crack?   

Just a thought but the result might be a smoother fill that requires less sanding and shaping after it's set.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Christian,

It looks like that product comes with the material to make a mold.

Think it would be possible to produce a mold from the corner of an unbroken 302 housing and use that as the backing for the resin when you fill the crack?   

Just a thought but the result might be a smoother fill that requires less sanding and shaping after it's set.

My dad was actually using the whole kit for molding something else with the resin. This wasn't actually purchased because of the crack, but was an afterthought when we compared the colors!

It probably would be, but it would probably be easier to just fill the rest of the inside of the crack with more resin, or perhaps some epoxy. I may not be inclined to try the epoxy, in the case that it could discolor the resin or plastic! I'll also try adding more resin to the outside too, as there are still some flaws that need to be filled in.

I wonder if it would be possible to reproduce ivory plungers, lifts, dial blanks, etc for ivory 302s missing those pieces? The color is spot-on, and the stuff seems refined enough to give it a shot!

[unbeldi]

When it comes to the Western Electric versions of Ivory, even when considering just the dash code —4, one instantiation is not always identical to others.  The color varied considerably over the years, even when looking at just the Tenite Acetate housings of the 300 series.  I think you had a degree of luck that in your case the color of that resin matched your set.  Don't assume this to be universal.

I have repaired cracks, missing corners, broken off cradle ears, etc., on at least a half dozen ivory 300 desk sets, plus a couple wall sets, some to a degree that the cracks were no longer visible to the naked eye.

But sometimes, the colors of the plastic from two phones just can't be matched up, no matter how much one tries to bleach them to a "standard".

Here is an example by pictures.  I am showing the rear of a phone as received and after repair.  The repaired corner was not a newly made, molded part, but came from a junk ivory housing dated 12-48, which has been my source for making ivory plastic solutions to be used as glue.

As you can see the color of the plastic in the corner is way too light for the rest of the phone.  I tried to paint it over with an ivory paint that matches perfectly the painted 202 Continentals of 1955. Not here... I sanded it off again, partially, and there are still some residues left, as can be seen in this stage of the process.

From the mechanical point of view, this is actually a very good repair. It's just a mismatch in plastic color. I considered it actually somewhat of an experiment to try to weld an intact corner into a missing area.  If the color match were better, it could have been repaired invisibly, I believe.

[unbeldi]

In your case, it appears that you didn't close the gap, but instead simply filled it.  Usually it takes quite a bit of force to close these cracks, the stress in the housings is considerable and one might be afraid to crack it simply by forcing the gap closed.

I would recommend letting the resin sit and cure for a few months before finishing, i.e. before filling in the remaining shallow "valley", that is apparent. I found   that the resin will probably contract over time, when solvents evaporate. One time I kept someone's set that I had repaired for about three months to let it cure, and he was getting a bit worried, if not upset, about not receiving his telephone back ever.

So, the final finishing and polishing should be done at the very end when the resins have stabilized.  Plastics, as well as these resins, are actually liquids, very viscous liquids, like glass, that literally flow for some time.