[Ron Ramirez]

Greg

Thanks. I actually sanded the metal back to bare metal again, wiped it down to make sure it was dry and free from dust, masked it off and painted it again a few hours before you posted.

I thought you had painted your platter as well as flocked it. You wrote:

Here's how the finished phonograph looks after repainting and reflocking:

I must have misunderstood - I guess you meant "repainting" (the phonograph itself) and "reflocking" (the platter).

Oh well, what's done is done; I know the flocking fibers will stick to the painted metal by my previous attempt.

I'm not going to try the flocking again until tomorrow or the next day. I had considered flocking without painting first, but I thought that just in case there might be an area where I failed to spray enough glue on...I didn't want to take any chances, especially since I really didn't know what I was doing.

The paint did not affect the finished product; my clumsiness in allowing the palm of my hand to come into contact with the wet glue and flocking is what ruined things the first time around. The back plate actually looked pretty good until I accidentally touched it.

I used a plastic pan to catch excess flocking fibers, and I was able to reclaim about 99% of what fell into the pan without sticking to the metal. I bought enough flocking fibers to reflock perhaps half a dozen or more back plates. I figure that if I can do this successfully, I may have to do others in the future.

Let me ask you something, while I have your attention. How long will it take for the glue and fibers to dry enough to handle safely? Naturally I do not expect it to dry immediately...I've used Super 77 on enough grill cloth to know that...I am just curious. I would like to know if I should set this aside for a week or so once I successfully apply the stuff, two weeks, or ???

I don't mind restringing the dial cords (plural - one for the dial, one to move the band indicator lamp up and down). I still have to install a new transformer in this set...when I can...I think I will find restringing the dial cords to be easier than installing a new transformer, possibly drilling another hole or three to get it installed, etc. As I mentioned before, the back plate is identical to that on my 41-246, and the dial stringing is the same for both sets. In case I run into problems restringing the cords, I can study the 41-246 and figure it all out.