My latest project

This is a little, OK a lot off the beaten path but you guys might find part of this interesting. I just finished restoring a 1910 National brass cash register model # 348. I had to find a couple of parts on E Bay and one of the parts was a topper sign. These signs are brass and sometimes they Nickel plate over brass which is exactly what I had when I found this sign. so I researched how to strip the nickel off of the Brass without damaging the Brass and what I found was this... Use Muratic Acid. I took the acid and poured a little on the sign and with very little help from a wire brush all the nickel came off in less than a minute. Here's some pix....Big Tim

 

Now THAT'S cool!

I could see where you would like this. The style and detail are a thing of beauty! I see stuff like this, and it's like being beamed back in time. Back to a time when a feller who worked one of these had to rely on his own math skills, and not the computer that is inside them now.
Great job of bringing that back to life!

 

Great job you did on it, Thanks for letting us see the de-plating process also.

 

Thanks Zig and Charles, I've been collecting antiques for the last 25 years. I've never sold any of them but I really enjoy restoring them. I once had a neighbor come over to my house who was 86 years old and while he was looking around he told me that some of the things I have were old when he was a kid.....Big Tim

 

Nice

Nice work Big Jim, where do you put the paper in that old typewriter?

 

VERY Nice !

Thanx Tim .

I had a 1940's cash register I saved from the scrap heap and cleaned up , it was near perfect but NO ONE wanted it oddly enough .

 

Thanks Nate and ya know you're right, I see these things on e bay all the time for as much as 2500.00 but there are never any bids on them. The one you had must have been made out of steel because from the research I have done they stopped making them out of brass when the first world war broke out so they could use the brass for Ammo....Big Tim

 

Thanks Brit, The paper go's in on the side behind the door shown in pix #5. Funny story though, this particular model came from your neck of the woods cause everything is in British pounds....Big TIM DAMMIT!....

 

Big Jim

Well Pound notes are the only ones worth having

 

Re:Nickle plating

Good job on the restoration! I've found that easy-off oven cleaner does a great job of taking the shine off stuff such as chrome valve covers and the like. A little prep sanding and they are ready to be painted!

 

I used Easy off and an SOS pad to get the clear off the brass then polished and re cleared.