Planox - Restoration - Part 1

As I described earlier, the unit is in relatively good condition. So, what I have decided to do is to try and restore it not to its original state, i.e. not a complete strip-down and rebuild, but to the state that it should have been today, had it been maintained properly as an antique over the years. In other words, my intention is not to make it look as new, but as a well preserved antique. The first step in the process is cleaning. Over the years a lot of dust has accumulated both in the inside and the outside. On top of that, the combination of dust, dirty fingers and atmosphere pollution has also added a layer of grime to the outside of the unit. After removing the parts that need removing, i.e. the light housing on the back, the opaque plate and the bayonet lenses on the front, I started off with just a good vacuuming of the inside, using a soft brush to remove a lot of the dust. Next, was a basic maintenance of the mechanism: a careful spray of a little WD-40 on all the sliding parts and gears. Although I have no plan to dismantle any of the main unit I did remove the four screws that hold each mounting mechanism for the viewing lenses, in order to be able to treat the wood surface underneath. It would have been impossible to clean and polish the front part of the viewer otherwise. The mechanisms of the viewing box got a similar first treatment with some WD-40 on the metal gears.

I then carefully removed the two sliding wood panels that manage the intra-ocular distance. Extending them beyond their normal sliding range, allowed me to take them off the rack-and-pinion mechanism and slide them further out, without taking them completely off. The panels are designed using tongue-and-groove fitting which I cleaned and treated with some plain candle wax. The panels now slide tightly but easily in and out, without stressing the metal gears as they did before.

The Brass

The brass decoration was next on the agenda. I used some 0000 steel wire with wood furniture cleaner, to lightly scrape off the dried French polish from the brass parts. Thankfully the engraving is quite deep so there was no risk of removing the black enamel paint inside it. The brass however now looks a lot cleaner and the contrast is highlighted.

I then covered all the brass parts with some Scotch magic-tape (the type that does not leave a residue) to protect them from the French polishing of the wood.