Accidental damage to "perfect" phones (...or, "When to commit suicide?")

[mr_a500]

After marvelling at my perfect unrestored 1953 matching dates WE 501 (or near-perfect... anything "perfect" would somehow seem unnaturally imperfect), I went to clean off the dust and give it a final light polish. As I picked up the phone, the cord snagged on something and flipped off the handset, which then bounced off the rough metal innards of another phone I had open. I looked at the (once) perfect Bakelite handset and saw two small chips. I swore loudly (naturally) and left the cleaning for another time (..when I had overcome my grief). Today, I carefully picked up the phone and the darn handset slid off again! I picked it up and the bottom has a large scratch on it. (Does this phone have a voodoo curse on it or something?? I thought I was being super-careful!)

Anyway, I'd like to hear other people's similar phone-related horror stories - to cheer me up. Has anyone else had a tragedy cleaning or fixing your phones - something that gnaws away at your brain and make you swear revenge on the universe?

(...and does anybody know the best way to fix once-perfect Bakelite?)

[Doug Rose]

I can definitely feel your pain. Approx 10 years ago I finally found a beautiful Green WE  thermoplastic 302.  It was a beauty. WAS!. I had it on my work bench and was reaching for a cloth to wipe it off. Cloth was under one of the feet (I found this out afterward) and I pulled the phone off the bench and on to the unforgiving cement floor. A whole side shattered like an egg shell. The handset actually cracked in half. The dial was pushed in and would spin of course course the open face finger wheel broke. I ended up with green cords, clear plungers and a dial card as my resulting temper tantrum finished off what was left.  The phone gods sometimes giveth and then taketh away. Yes, you can use that quote.

Try some fine steel wool on your bakelite handset. Make sure its bakelite and not plastic or you will follow my temper tantrum formula....good luck....Doug

[Russ Kirk]

Many, many years ago, before I started seriously collecting I had an Oops.

I had a coin phone mounted in my garage and I placed a Bakelite WE 302 on top.  Well, in my ignorance I mounted the coin phone with mollies to the sheetrock.  In the middle of the night the mollies failed - ripped out of the sheetrock - and coin phone fell.  When I discovered what happened I found the coin phone undamaged.  The 302 did not make it.  The handset was in two pieces and both the receiver and transmitter caps were broken.    The body was in 3-4 pieces and the base was bent. I guess the coin phone somehow had fallen on top of the 302.  Nothing Bakelite was salvageable.

In my disgust the 302 went into the trash.  Like I said,  I was not into collecting in those days.  Anyway.  the next day I went back to work and got another 302 from the "return bin".  302's back then were plentiful.

Russ...

[mr_a500]

Ah... now I don't feel so bad about my little chips and scratches. 

Try some fine steel wool on your bakelite handset. Make sure its bakelite and not plastic or you will follow my temper tantrum formula....good luck....Doug

Fine steel wool? Wouldn't that remove the shine and make it rough? I've got a Stromberg Bakelite handset that I think somebody scrubbed with steel wool and no matter how much Novus 2 I scrub with, it just stays rough. (and brown)

That was why I was so thrilled with my 501 in the first place. It's the shiniest (non-painted) Bakelite handset I've ever seen. (and definitely not plastic)

[JorgeAmely]

... as my resulting temper tantrum finished off what was left.  ...

Doug: Relax .... It's a hobby, it's supposed to be fun! (Now where have I read that before ...  )

[Doug Rose]

... as my resulting temper tantrum finished off what was left.  ...

Doug: Relax .... It's a hobby, it's supposed to be fun! (Now where have I read that before ...  )

Jorge...that's the new and improved Doug. I was a work in progress at that time....Doug

[mr_a500]

... as my resulting temper tantrum finished off what was left.  ...

Doug: Relax .... It's a hobby, it's supposed to be fun! (Now where have I read that before ...  )

I completely understand that kind of tantrum. I once punched a computer, ripped it open, pulled out the drive (cables and all) and smashed it on the ground. I think that was the last time I ever ran Windows... ("No, 'Clippy', that's not what I want to do!!"  )

[Doug Rose]

Ah... now I don't feel so bad about my little chips and scratches.  

Try some fine steel wool on your bakelite handset. Make sure its bakelite and not plastic or you will follow my temper tantrum formula....good luck....Doug

Fine steel wool? Wouldn't that remove the shine and make it rough? I've got a Stromberg Bakelite handset that I think somebody scrubbed with steel wool and no matter how much Novus 2 I scrub with, it just stays rough. (and brown)

Fine steel wool will not leave it rough. I use it on my WE F1s all the time. Really cleans them up. It will not leave them rough. For a shine, I use Avon skin so soft others use Turtle wax F21. NEVER paint bakelite, it will shine on its own.......Doug

[mr_a500]

Fine steel wool will not leave it rough. I use it on my WE F1s all the time. Really cleans them up. It will not leave them rough. For a shine, I use Avon skin so soft others use Turtle wax F21. NEVER paint bakelite, it will shine on its own.......Doug

I wouldn't think of painting Bakelite... but don't Bakelite handsets change from shiny black to dull dark brown when the thin top layer is rubbed off? From the phones I've got, that's what it looks like.

Anyway, my chips are very small so I won't bother trying to fix them. I'm just annoyed because I don't know how to build a time machine to go back and stop it from happening. (...but I suppose if I had that time machine, I could just go back to the 50's and load up on new ones...)

[KeithB]

As the ultimate possessor of infinite impatience, I have broken many, many things in my lifetime. 
Fortunately, very few of them were so rare or dear.

You have my condolences and empathy. 

[Dennis Markham]

I've had a couple of incidents where I've broken a phone that I just bought.  But the worst of them was an Oxford Gray 500 from November of 1955 I bought via eBay.  It isn't the greatest example but it was my "poor man's" version.  The handset when purchased was a gray handset from a pay phone.  I later purchased an Oxford Gray handset shell---but am still looking for the proper caps.

So I'm using my "new" Oxford Gray phone and like I did with a black 302 once, I turned in my swivel chair and pulled it to the floor.  When the dust settled I had damage to the dial bezel.  I examined the housing a dozen times and found no damage resulting from the smack on the floor.  But the dial bezel was crazed before I got it.  I had not noticed the crazing in the plastic and it was very brittle.  Many tiny pieces broke off the edge of the bezel, near the "1".  Attached is a photo I took before and after the fall.  So now I'm looking for an Oxford Gray dial bezel too....anyone have one?

[paul-f]

Would a light application of a solvent (such as acetone, which has been used for crack repair) be enough to fuse the crazing?

Does any one have experience repairing cracks on the dial rings?

[Dennis Markham]

Jorge did some experimenting with Acetone and soft plastic a couple of years ago.  He concluded then that it's not a good mixture.  I believe he concluded that the Acetone caused air bubbles in the plastic.  He was attempting to fuse together a crack using Acetone. 

This dial bezel is pretty hard.  The plastic crumbled.  I'm afraid that if I start messing with it more will begin to break off.  I just shined it up and threw it on the shelf.

[Sargeguy]

"Didn't it already have a crack in it?" asked my wife after my daughter pulled my Pekin Red 302 off the shelf, cracking its only uncracked corner.

[JorgeAmely]

Jorge did some experimenting with Acetone and soft plastic a couple of years ago.  He concluded then that it's not a good mixture. ...

However, ETS was successful in fixing a 302 housing using acetone some time ago. Time to consult him.