What's your current project?

[ATC]

Fascinating!
- Mr Spock

[Myles_Falworth]

Thanks Camojoe! That really does help. I always love to see a detailed description of repair technique like yours. THANKS!

[camojoe]

I've had limited success with talker repair, but I have gotten lucky a time or two.
Here's some things I've learned.
Patience, first of all. If you get frustrated, walk away and come back later.
The needle must be in good condition, and fairly sharp. Not too sharp, as it'll cut through the talker tape.
Check the condition of the needle with a strong magnifier.
If you need to replace the needle, a 78RPM record needle is a perfect replacement.
The hairspring that controls the needle movement, can be replaced with the wire that's in a sewing needle threader. https://www.michaels.com/loops-and-t...MaAk4IEALw_wcB
I clean everything with alcohol and a Q-tip, especially the voice tape.
You can remove the flywheel cover, with careful prying. You can soften the glue joint with acetone or liguid model car glue, like Ambroid or Tenax.
Once you get to the flywheel, you can remove and clean it. Look for the two felt pads that attach to the flyweights; the pads can be replaced with new felt.
It seems the pads are the main things that control the speed of the voice. I've played with the felt by starting out with thicker pieces, then trimming to get the voice sounding right.
That was the most tedious part of the repairs for me.
There was also a piece of black foam glued to the back of the talk box, that made contact with the talker chest back half.
Seems that foam helped keep pressure against the speaker.
There was also a very small piece of foam glued to the inside of the chest front half, right where the talker string goes through.
I've read the purpose of this foam was to clean the string, and to minimally regulate the talker speed.
Just make sure everything is clean before reassembly.
I guess you could use some light oil, like clockmakers use, for lubrication of moving points, but I've never felt the need to.
If everything is clean and in good order, your talker should work well again.
I've managed to get soldiers, and AT Commanders to talk good again.
I'm working on a Marine and Sailor right now; the Marine is giving me fits.
Sometimes, no matter what you do, you can only go so far with successful repairs.
Hope this helps.
Camo

[Myles_Falworth]

I found there was only one forearm in the lot that could take a KFG peg. So I can't outfit all these Joes with hands. Rats!

[TNshooter]

Nice pickups Myles! That last set has some nice body parts. The figure on the left, I'm curious, if a little removing of the flocking on the chin and under the bottom lip.
Would it give him a mutton chop? That would make for an interesting character.

[Myles_Falworth]

I won this lot on Ebay on Thursday to help build my collection, and finish the Joes with missing hands in the post above. I am thinking of making the Land Adventurer to the right a KFG figure, since I will now have the proper parts for it. He could have been one before, but was missing both forearms before. So it's as good a guess as any. But I need more KFG figures. This lot gives me another two.

[Myles_Falworth]

This evening I worked on the three newest Joes quite a bit. I found feet for all of them. I decided to give the "new" feet to the Sea Adventurer since the skin tone was the closest of the two. So the other foot on the Sea Adventurer went to join the right foot the Land Adventurer still had. I found lower arms for the Sea Adventurer and a left hand. I also found two lower arms for the Land Adventurer that was missing them. I still need hands for him. The other Land Adventurer that was missing only his left hand, I realized I had one left hand in my parts bin with a painted rivet. However that Joe's right hand had a painted rivet too. So he got the left hand and they both match. The foot on the Land Adventurer to the right was broken off. The peg had to be knocked out with a hammer and screwdriver. I had to remove the lower leg first, which required a vise, some rubber gloves, and a lot of sweat equity! But it got done. I love my vise! I have a nice magnetic attachment to it which will hold objects at different angles and in different sizes. It's extremely useful for removing stuck pegs.

[ATC]

Looks like a fun project!
- ATC

[Myles_Falworth]

Here is my latest project. You can see two figure need both lower arms and hands. The third is pretty beat up but only needs a left hand. The two feet on the Sea Adventurer were left feet. One turned out to be a Mike Power foot. So I need a complete pair of feet. I think I have some on an AT Commander lower body. I'll use those. The hand will be a bigger problem. And two of these Joes need reflocking. More to follow.

[GeekDragon]

Looks great. Shoulder holsters will definitely make them look even better.

[Myles_Falworth]

Here are the three formerly headless bodies from post 119 in the latest finds thread. All have found a head, and now uniforms and boots. I still need to give each a shoulder holster and pistol. I'm out of vintage Lebels, so the Air and Sea Adventurers will receive Club repros, but vintage black holsters. The Land Adventurer will get a vintage black Lebel, with a repro Club brown holster. I managed to stock a few before the Club shut down. Now where are they? I'll find them, with Joe's help!

[Myles_Falworth]

While I'm deciding what to do with the talker, I decided to outfit the 3 Joes I put together from some AT heads I had, plus the three bodies I got and talked about at post 119 of this thread http://www.thetrenchesforum.com/foru...st-finds/page8 So I'm still deciding on uniforms for these guys, but they are all assembled, and I found short black boots for all of them tonight. That's been the extent of my restoration work for the past week or more. Pictures to follow.

[ATC]

Ugh. Good luck. The only thing I can think of is carefully giving everything a good cleaning. Maybe give each axle some sort of lube, like that dry powdered graphite. I have no ways at restoring talkers, though. Maybe somebody reading this conversation will chime in with some tips!
:-)
- ATC

[Myles_Falworth]

I looked more closely at the talker's mechanism tonight. Tried replacing the speaker, but it didn't do any good. The string retracts slowly and haltingly. Right after I replace the speaker the first time, it retracted all the way with no effort. But after putting the new one in, it went back to being slow, and with the old speaker it's no better. Must have been a fluke. Nothing is impeding the string. My next thing was to look a the needle and tape. Nothing seems amiss. However I didn't look at the needle under a magnifier so who knows? Next I'll check the fly wheel and see if the felt is out of place. I feel like I'm a long way from fixing this.

[ATC]

Good luck on the restoration, Myles.
Keep us posted!
- ATC