A Typical Day
Been a very typical day in the Seeburg life. Late last week I tore down the lower door on the Texas STD4 jukebox. Someone had painted over the blue with black spray paint on the screens. This will not abide. Luckily the chrome pieces on the lower door are good enough to use as-is. I wasn’t so lucky on the upper door and that deserves its own write up.
Used to be I went out in the back driveway and used that area for knocking the old paint off and repainting as well. Now here in Washington I have a normal sized front drive way and a tiny patio. I try not to do too much in the front driveway. All the neighbors are really close. I wracked my brains as to just how I was going to knock the old paint off the screens and not make a monumental mess and actually came up with a good idea. I always have large cardboard boxes because of the Amazon gig. I got a big one, put the screens inside it one at a time, used a 3/8″ drill with a wire wheel, and went to town. The old spray paint comes off easily enough and it took maybe an hour to do all four screens. Most of the original blue came off as well. If the old poorly adhered paint isn’t taken off it just jeopardizes the new paint job from lasting any length of time.
I vacuumed all the paint chips out of the box and used it to paint in as well on the back patio. Each screen went in and eventually got three coats of Krylon True Blue. They came out fabulously and are a big improvement over someone’s idea of an upgrade. While waiting between coats I started steel wooling the metal trim. I like to use a course grade for the first go-round then use a finer 000 grade after. Tedious work indeed!
Today I cleaned the three colored plastics and the glass that goes with them. Seeburg used a sticky tape to hold the plastic and glass together. It is on three flippin’ sides. The edge and then front and back all around. I hate this tape. Seeburg used it on ALL glass from somewhere in the 60’s on up. After 50 years it’s still sticky and I believe it has a little bit of foam cushion built-in. Nowadays that foam is just crumbs-sticky crumbs at that. It is my least favorite part of door resto on the STD’s. I went so far as to use a bit of paint thinner around the edges of the plastics and was gratified that the plastic didn’t melt.
I had already re-assembled the lower door. This can be a bit tricky keeping the screens aligned while trying to pin down the outside L pieces. The bottom has to be pop riveted back in place. The sides have studs and bolts. It is the same juggling act to get the three metal loops secured onto the screens. When done the screens are very securely in place. I slid the clean glass and plastics back in and re-attached the top metal bar holding them in place. When finished, everything is clean and shiny.
I got set up to start replacing the solder-in 2182 lamps for the chase lights. I have the complete harness suspended on the titlestrip bars and plugged into the sequencer which had already been gone through. I did note that one of the five, that is, every 5th light isn’t blinking but staying lit so I still have some work to do on the sequencer. May just be a wire problem as I tested the sequencer on the Test Juke and it worked fine. I marked all the lamps that were out with a Sharpie, about 8 or 9, turned the juke off and the soldering iron on. I replaced three lamps and decided to wait til later to finish it. I like to end the evening by getting off the couch and out in the shop for a little bit before bedtime.
To round out the day I dragged the plastic bin out into the driveway, got my mechanics seat and a razor blade and opened the lid. I rennovate black and gray boxes and always have several of the plastic cases soaking in the bin. I’ll let them soak for a week. This all to get the paper stickers and the damned glue off. I spend more time cleaning the cases and making them presentable than actually repairing the boards for these boxes. I got about half the cases absolutely sticker and glue free. I brought those inside where they will get a final wash in the kitchen sink. The rest will soak for a couple more days. Some of them have someone else’s sticker over the Seeburg sticker or even the white label Seeburg used on factory repairs. These cases with two stickers can soak for a week and the water never reaches the bottom sticker. So off with the top sticker and back in they go. Once cases are done I start on the boards repairing, testing, and re-assembling.
My Seeburg Life 