News:

"The phone is a remarkably complex, simple device,
and very rarely ever needs repairs, once you fix them." - Dan/Panther

Main Menu

Bakelite Repair Advice

Started by AE_Collector, October 24, 2010, 10:04:37 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Dave F

I know I'm getting way ahead of myself here, but I've been thinking some about the broken grill slot situation.  Assuming that I can reassemble the main parts of the housing using super glue and resin, how about this for the grill:  First, find a good spare AE34 housing (which I believe I do have).  Coat the grill slots with some sort of non-stick material (Pam, Vaseline, etc).  Then, from the inside of the housing, make a mold of the grill slots using silicone rubber or maybe even Play-Doh.  Carefully remove the resulting mold and install it inside the broken housing, and then use your resin to fill in the broken parts of the slot area from the outside.  Play-Doh, which is water-soluble even after it hardens, could then be removed by soaking the housing in water after the resin sets.  Sand,sand, sand, and voila -- new slots.  This is just a preliminary thought and, of course, your mileage may vary.  Maybe somebody out there can refine this into something that might actually work.

Wallphone

Dave, I think that you would want to make a mold of the outside of the grill. That is how you would capture the details of it. There are many sources for supplies but check this one out first.
> http://www.alumilite.com/index.cfm <

AE_Collector

Have you had time to determine if some of your grill pieces are actually AWOL? Obviously having the original pieces is best but another possibility that I have seen done is to cannibalize pieces out of an otherwise smashed housing. I would assume that these pieces in the 34 are identical to a 40 or 50 as well. There are no shortage of smashed housings out there to cut them from and with carefull cutting and gluing you might be in good shape. Check Ray K's garbage can on garbage day. I know he occasionally sells otherwise good AE housings after he removes all the parts he needs for his creations but he likely obtains as many smashed housings as possible to cannibalize the other parts from.

The vents in the bottom of AE50's frequently get smashed up as they are longer than the vents on the sides of 34's, 40's & 50's. I have seen a fairly good repair to the vents on the bottom of a 50 by cutting out the entire grill section from an otherwise smashed 50 housing and gluing it into the 50 that had the smashed grill.

Terry

phone-sweep

Actually, I looked into mold-making about 5 years ago precisely for restoring the grills on some AE50's I had.  I contacted the people at www.artmolds.com, sent  them some pics and they recommended this kit for the job (complete with 2005 catalog):






Part A, Part B and mixing cup.

Came in a box called "FXRite12".  It is 2-part silicone rubber kit.  Both Part A (Rubber) and Part B (Catalyst) look to be milky white liquids but Part A is definitely rubbery.  One thing led to another and I never got around to using this stuff and it says it has a shelf life of 6 months.....so I think I'm a little late.  Eheh.  Seems like I paid about $28-$30 for this.  Visiting their website, I can't find this kit anymore so I suspect it is this one renamed "SkinRite10".  The particulars seem to match.  Price has gone up, too - now $43.95 for the pint kit.

I suppose what you do here, is build a small mold box - maybe 3" x 11", fill it with the mix, and then submerge the side of good AE50 housing into it just deep enough to cover the vent bars.  I still might try this even though it is "expired"...

Artmolds.com is kind of a strange website in that they seem to be dedicated to recreating body parts for movies and whatnot but there is another product that they have that seems interesting - a 5 minute Playdoh-like stuff - Five Minute Molding Putty.  No mold box needed - this might be the one to try....

Barry

Dave F

Quote from: ae_collector on October 27, 2010, 01:16:17 PM
Have you had time to determine if some of your grill pieces are actually AWOL? Obviously having the original pieces is best but another possibility that I have seen done is to cannibalize pieces out of an otherwise smashed housing. I would assume that these pieces in the 34 are identical to a 40 or 50 as well. There are no shortage of smashed housings out there to cut them from and with carefull cutting and gluing you might be in good shape. Check Ray K's garbage can on garbage day. I know he occasionally sells otherwise good AE housings after he removes all the parts he needs for his creations but he likely obtains as many smashed housings as possible to cannibalize the other parts from.

The vents in the bottom of AE50's frequently get smashed up as they are longer than the vents on the sides of 34's, 40's & 50's. I have seen a fairly good repair to the vents on the bottom of a 50 by cutting out the entire grill section from an otherwise smashed 50 housing and gluing it into the 50 that had the smashed grill.

Terry
Honestly, at this moment I wouldn't even know where to start looking for the broken pieces of the grill.  I would have put them into a bag and stored them somewhere, but with the mess I've got, who knows where!

I did consider cutting the entire grill section off of another housing and transplanting it into the broken one.  That might actually work pretty well, but I should gain some experience with the resin procedures and with cutting Bakelite before destroying the only other 34 housing I have!

By the way, thanks to all who have inserted their 2ยข into this discussion.  This AE34 was not important at the time I was hot for the ivory 305. When the 34 arrived broken, I seriously considered stripping out the good parts and simply throwing away the housing.  Now (thanks to you folks on this Forum), I'm glad I chose to keep it.  Clearly, this is a worthwhile example to try to save, and at some point in the future that's just what I will attempt to do.

Wallphone

If you don't already have the equipment to do castings it might be easier to do a transplant. I know that with a lot of castings you need a vacuum chamber & a pressure pot to get you resin to work correctly. I think that D/P has done castings before. Maybe he will chirp in on this discussion.

AE_Collector

#21
Quote from: Dave F on October 28, 2010, 01:25:20 PM
but I should gain some experience with the resin procedures and with cutting Bakelite before destroying the only other 34 housing I have!

If you decide to do some transplant work, don't chop up your good 34. There are lots and lots of busted housings out there that still have good sections of the grill/vents. I think that a 40 would be identical in that area but am not positive, need to check. I definitely have smashed 40's so I could send you a busted up case to play with and do a transplant.

I would love to find a 34 with the handhold for my AE collection and I frequently look for basket cases although not usually quite as much of a "basket case" as this one is. If you had taken me up on the trade offer early in this discussion, I could see it sitting around on one of my shelves with the pieces "taped" together for a long time. Either that or I'd send it to Barry!

Terry

Dave F

Terry,

I won't cut up the good 34 case.  When the time comes to work on this project I'll give you guys a holler and drum up some old junker that still has good grills.  It does appear that, with a considerable amount of time and effort, this phone actually could be repaired (or at least substantially improved).

Dave

rdelius

Handset for my A1
used Locktite Black Max and a dark filler to rebuild the rec end. The contact ring was broken out and I had to solder it back and glue it in place.Note this is not an E1 but a D 80370
Robby

dhilarious

Another easy way to do very strong repairs is use JB Quick weld resin.  Its very strong and standable.


phoneaddict

#25
Quote from: phone-sweep on October 25, 2010, 03:21:30 PM
Also, another thought is that I would have handled the running crack on the bakelite ringerbox differently (that post was 5 years ago and I was still learning).  Today, I would grind into the crack with a Dremel reinforced cutoff wheel and then fill with resin....

Man, why does the text start bouncing around when typing into a full reply box?  Is there a fix for this?

phoneaddict

#26
Barry - What brand name do you use for the PBC (plastic buffing compound)  and where can I buy it?  Also, what do you use to buff it?
Thanks ! - Gerald

phoneaddict

Quote from: phone-sweep on October 25, 2010, 03:21:30 PM
Also, another thought is that I would have handled the running crack on the bakelite ringerbox differently (that post was 5 years ago and I was still learning).  Today, I would grind into the crack with a Dremel reinforced cutoff wheel and then fill with resin....

Man, why does the text start bouncing around when typing into a full reply box?  Is there a fix for this?

TelePlay

Quote from: phoneaddict on July 21, 2013, 07:54:36 PMMan, why does the text start bouncing around when typing into a full reply box?  Is there a fix for this?

That's a very good question. Hopefully Dennis can shed some light on that, again. It's been discussed before, I think, but can't find the thread right now.

I use 6 different computers to access the forum. I have that problem on some but not the others. I get around it by using Word or WordPad to type my text and then cut and paste it into the reply box. That's easier than having the box jump to the top of the reply each time a key stroke is entered. This little notebook I am using right now and my main desktop works fine. My basement Dell desktop and wife's laptop have that problem.

Yeah, 6 computers because they last forever but as the size of software programs grow, that makes them obsolete, but still useable for internet access. Maybe that's a new disease - computeritis . . .  ;)

AE_Collector

#29
Need to click the compatibility mode button (looks like a broken page) up top of Internet Explorer.

I went looking for where the jumpy screen was discussed and was surprised to find the discussion right here in THIS TOPIC! Go back to reply #4 and then Bill nailed it in reply #6.

Terry