Latest Organ Restoration

[phil]

Casey your woodworking skills are obviously quite advanced. Nice work!

I would be trying to make copies with plaster or epoxy, only because I can see the level of time that took, but of course there is no substitute for real wood. Is it walnut?

[Lily left the valley]

What a wonderful find. I'm happy it's found a good home where it will be restored and cherished.

[Casey]

Yes, walnut.
Casey

[Mick_VT]

I would be trying to make copies with plaster or epoxy,

I think I might have just actually felt Casey's reaction to the thought of that coming through my keyboard

[phil]

a guy once gave me a really good day long lesson on casting radio knobs and we did some together. He'd use a rubber like mold making compound and he was doing fake wood knobs as well as bakelite and plastic copies. he would pigment the epoxy to a tan or light brown, then the mold would pick up the woodgrain relief as they aren't perfectly smooth. then after casting it he'd spray some darker brown laquer toner on and wipe them off and that would highlight the woodgrain pattern. The results were quite convincing.
that wasn't mean to be an insult to the way Casey did it. His parts are definitely going to look and be more original of course and the work to make them is obvious. this is a labor of love and he wants it just right. also those parts might not be identical but instead mirrored and that wouldn't be possible to reverse with a mold like it would be if it were graphics.


I tried making some repro knobs from wood and what I did was shaped my own knife that I could mount in the lathe to make the outer shape of a knob but the particular knob I was reproducing also had a wheat or woven pattern on the face of the knob. this was originally a repwood, which is basicly sawdust and glue that was formed. anyway I cut a recess where that was to go and gave them like that to the guy I made them for. I suggested he did a little press mold and so he pressed one of the original knob faces into dark brown "femo" and made a little "button" the right shape to fit into this recessed area. the results were really good and we were happy with that.
The turning part I can see doing but carving is one thing that would scare me as I would think that would be where I'd mess the whole thing up.

nowadays they are getting good at 3D scanning parts and using 3D printers or CNC routers and I find it fascinates me. I'd love to get into some of that as a hobby.

as it were the guy that showed me passed his giant knob collection on to a guy that was an ebay seller but that exhausted itself. He mostly sold the audio tubes off that were worth cash and later I bought the knob collection and some of the boxes of tubes. I probably have one of the largest collections of knobs around, there are thousands of them. I think it was a collection of different collections that was somehow amassed as it would take a lot of old radios to get them.
Ive often thought of trying to use them all as masters and to make a website with a pic of each knob,, then people could order them and I'd cast copies and keep the originals so I didn't depleat the supply.
the problem is although I have thousands there were probably many more designs and the work is so customized that I'm not sure I could turn any profit, it would still be a labor intensive proposition and radio collectors are inherently cheap and resourceful
I thought of doing a "wall of knobs" and just using hot melt glue to glue them onto boards closely spaced out. It would be an interesting display. some of the tubes I collected are interesting too. some of the early ones were pretty much hand made and of interesting design and quite rare so I could also do a nice display case of rare and interesting 1920's tubes. I better not morph the thread. Nice job Casey!
Phil

[Casey]

I found a guy on a facebook furniture restoration group who makes replicas of compo carvings and moldings. That's the stuff made from hide glue and wood flour shaped in a mold; been around since the 1700's, so it is a very old art.
I once cast 20 ft of a cornice molding in bondo because I didn't have plaster-casting skills, and the molding was exterior and we were recreating it since 90% of it had disintegrated from water damage.

[phil]

Ive been playing around with epoxy since I got lots of clear , yellowish stuff and even more that is a tan color and used for some sort of crack filler.

Ive been taking sawdust from under my tablesaw and screening it out then mixing the fines in the epoxy at about 50/50. It looks quite a bit like wood if I use the clear. I used fiberglass with the epoxy resin to coat my stairs. it worked but i used plastic so my forms wouldn't stick and had some bubbles so I just continued and started mixing in the wood dust. belt sander to knock the bumps off then the epoxy and wood dust as a filler applied like bondo. Its working well for what it is. I just need to do some final prep and then Ill install the staircase as a unit. got busy with my roof so it's waiting.

during my roof install I started looking at the top of the fascia boards. I did not want to fuss about too much or replace the long fascia boards. I cut some good fir strips for the top edge. I am putting some 2x2" drip flashing over the wood strips and that will keep the water off the top of the fascia too. Ive been thinking of trying to fill the top ends of the board where it's a bit punky. thought maybe I can drill some holes and make like a little form and pour it on top , or something..

the epoxy/wood dust mixture seems like it might lend itself to making parts that can be molded btu of course it wouldn't look quite like the repwood.
a lot of my old radios use it in fancy lookalike carved pieces.
if you check out this link to a google search you can see what I mean.. I love the stuff. It isnt' carving but it still makes me smile

https://www.google.com/search?q=crosley ... yd-fJgQCFM:

[Casey]

Making some progress!

083.JPG (1.25 MiB) Viewed 672 times

[phil]

what will you do with it once it's all finished? Its sure looking nice. beautiful workmanship!
a church near my parents place was burned down to the ground , there is some talk about rebuilding the 1700's structure, but the pipe organ was lost in the fire. I recently saw a free one on Craigslist but I didn't react quickly and it was gone fast. I probably have my hands in too many things anyway.

[Gothichome]

Casey, another example of your great work and attention to detail. I noticed you got most of the slots on your fasteners growing in the same direction. How do you get the keys so white, I would expect them to have been ivory?