April 11, 2025

Still Livin’ The Seeburg Life

The last several months have been spent buying a new home, readying the old home to sell, and sorting through belongings deciding what to keep and what to throw away, sell, or donate.

This includes going through decades worth of Seeburg parts and trying to decide what will be needed in the future. I started a “hoarding” type mentality when I got in business for myself back in 1988. Mainly because money was so tight and so many parts can be re-used. If I could re-use a part it meant money wasn’t spent for that part. If I tore down a video game I would keep screws, nuts, washers, trim, switches, lighting assemblies, ballasts, controls, wire and more; in short everything but the wooden cabinet. This held true for the jukeboxes as well and over a 30 year span I bet I’ve torn down a couple hundred Seeburg jukeboxes mainly the 60’s and 70’s models with a good sprinkling of 50’s.

Imagine sorting through 30-40 reverse switches of the different sort Seeburg used! Same with 50 detent switch assemblies. Or 32 tonearm assemblies. Where it hurt was having to throw away amplifiers and control centers. I knew I’d be hauling a lot to Washington, or rather that Mayflower would, and have tried hard to keep the weight down. I think I’m taking a couple amps and a couple of the DCC’s. The rest of them got scrapped with as much attention to small parts as always. You know those plastic posts used to mount the boards in those units and how one will break leaving a three-legged mount? Well I have a butt load of them now. Set for years post-wise.

Trying to save shipment weight got a serious kick when I saw a STD4 for sale very cheap. One I had worked on once. I emailed Mayflower and was pleasantly surprised to learn that adding a 375 pound juke would cost me about $75. Not bad at all! I’m picking it up Sunday. This morning I quickly found an LS3 for parts and a decently priced AQ160 and thought about hauling them with me as well.

NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

That way lies madness as King Lear once said.

I do intend to keep on livin’ the Seeburg Life when I get to Vancouver. A fellow has a STD3 stashed away that I will pick up shortly after getting there. I’m already starting to make aquaintenances with jukebox people living in the area. Found plenty of places to get speakers reconed. Now to find a decently priced chrome plater if there is such a thing anymore. I intend to keep right on reconditioning parts to sell and restoring jukeboxes as well. I like doing it for several reasons the least of which is it keeps me busy.

I’ve learned a thing or two about being busy. I started in December doing all the small jobs around the house I just ignored for years. I worked harder than I’ve worked since, well, working for a living. I used to joke that home prices appreciated so much that I wouldn’t have to do anything and could still sell the house for quite a bit more than I paid for it. Something happened though when I thought about it. I turned out to be a lot more interested in making as much money on the house than I thought. It took four months but I finally finished all the caulking, painting, and repair needed. Even by gosh put 30 pieces of sod in the front lawn. House looks good and I feel great about my house.

Now, will someone buy it so I can move please?

I’ve also learned a lot about being not-busy. Most all my belongings are packed. I don’t know how often I’ve needed something only to find out it’s been packed. I’ve re-opened packed boxes looking for stuff with very limited success. Most boxes are such a hodge-podge of stuff that they’re marked Miscellaneous so there’s not much of a hint as to contents. I’m living a very minimal life in that with nothing left to work on I have a lot of free time. I have books, the TV, and my computer basically. I got all excited this morning at the prospect of driving to the post office to drop off some letters. I drove slowly there and back stopping at several garage sales and the Dollar Store.

Hasn’t been much of a “Seeburg Life”. Usually I’m working on something Seeburg everyday but the closest I’ve come to it in the last couple months is getting the jukeboxes I’m taking with me ready to move. All the Library Units got pieced back together and are now whole, not working, but whole. The Test Box is ready as is the Console Library Unit. I’ll take the SMC2 Hideaway and the additional STD4. I tied the mechs down either with a bolt through the mech to the track or baling wire to each side of the mechanism and the ends of the rack to keep ’em from being able to move. Mayflower says they’ll blanket wrap all this stuff. The only one I’m really worried about is the Console Unit with the beautifully restored mahogany finish. I’d have a fit if it gets scratched or dented. Absolute fit.

About the last thing to work on is the Honda Car. I replaced the plugs yesterday and will soon change the oil, rear shocks, and transmission fluid. I’ll be driving it Westward Ho! at some point. I’m making sure to parce this work out slowly to try and make it last.

February 23, 2025

Spending Time At The Library

I can’t remember when I got the first Seeburg Library Unit or where it came from. I thought Seeburg’s 100 record continuous play 45rpm machine was wonderful. Compact, hours of music. It was used a lot for background music in stores and yes, libraries and very popular in skating rinks where the music could be dialed up and left to play on its own. Seeburg made these in the early 50’s. It’s interesting to see the various mechanism covers that come with them and the coloring of the mechanisms. Most mechs are gray. These Library Units had hideaway-style mechanism covers. Very plain, no medallions. The earliest ones have the 100 Select art deco style mechanism cover. I’ve had one with the light blue plain R cover, another with a pink 222 cover-no medallion, one with a tan V200 mech cover, and V200 mechanism green, um, mechanism. This would seem to span from roughly 1952 to 1959. I don’t know if this indicates any year or Seeburg just used what they had laying around. I’d like to think it roughly corresponds to the year a unit was made but that is another Seeburg mystery.

Years ago I got two Library Units, botyh LU3’s which have the hinged top lid and PA5 preamplifier. I went through both mechanisms and amplifiers. One sat in the spare bedroom on the floor covered and the other on top of one of the large DDS-1 speakers in the dining room as a test unit for amps. One of the cabinets was pretty rough needing a lot of the wood pieces replaced. Because of that I kept the other cabinet empty, in pieces, sitting on its side to use for patterns. I bought a nice used Ryobi router table and reconditioned it with some new pieces. I have wood working in my blood as one grandfather was a carpenter but no real skill at it. However, a router table cuts straight lines and this I could handle, even enjoy. I think the precision appeals to me.

That Library Unit cabinet was always at the end of a long list of projects and work to be done and as such got desultory work here and there. I cut several pieces to size out of hardwood and had done some preliminary routing. ( routering?) Now that I’m moving to Vancouver I have to do something as I intend to take them with me and finish them properly. That something is to completely assemble them to travel. Mike Morton, an old school mate came through for me big time. He was actually a couple grades ahead of me in high school and I doubt we knew each other existed back then. I’ve come to know him over the years though. He lives in Longview and has a deep love for Library Units and jukeboxes as I do. He wanted to know one day if I would like a couple of Library Unit cabinets. “Oh yes, please!” I had visions of not having to resurrect the one cabinet in rough condition.

Mike gave me two Library Unit cabinets, several preamps, and a bunch of miscellaneous parts. One of the cabinets is in extremely good condition and I immediately started swapping any needed parts from the rough cabinet to this one. I re-installed the fluorescent lamp fixture and on/off switch someone had modified, actually got a replacement glass cut and the pull/lock hole drilled at my go-to glass company-Country Glass here in Mesquite. They are my glass heroes for the small jobs they do for me so well and so affordably. One of the cabinets is the older LU2. It had a Lexan piece in place of the glass. I’m hoping their diamond drill will cut one more hole. It didn’t take long to populate the new cabinet and yesterday I hoisted the mechanism off the speaker, where it sat for years, and installed it in its new cabinet. It is now bolted down and ready to move. The older LU2 cabinet is pretty nice as well. I have a mechanism and preamp for it thanks to Mike. It will get assembled and hauled west as well.

And so I dug the router table out and re-familiarized myself with it and where I had left off. Got my trusty Craftsman router bolted down and did some routering for the middle bottom cabinet piece. It connects via slots front and back and holds the two square pieces that constitute the bottom. I’m down to cutting slots. Setting up the slot cutter it looked like the blade was too large. I had to break out the dial calipers ( the good one not the cheap plastic digital) to ascertain that indeed it was almost 20 thousandths too large. Glue could probably make it for it but I wanted a tighter fit. Careful measuring of the slot came to .180. A quick trip to the computer and google and I found I needed a 3/16″ cutter which comes to .187. Another few minutes at Amazon using the very last of my Prime membership will get me the new bit sometime today. I’ll cut two of any of the new pieces I need so that the rough cabinet can be re-assembled and given to a buddy. He would like to have a flip top cabinet. I told him its rough but he would like to give it a go. Hopefully his woodworking skills are much better than mine. I’m still debating just how to finish out the wood on the ones I have.