[78-L] One Sided Red Vocalion Records..??

[David Lennick]

I wonder if red records were refused during the regrind years? I know laminated 
ones were.

dl

zimrec at juno.com wrote:
> Interesting thing about the Vocalion red shellac records.  As I’ve reported in this forum in the past, I reinforce radial cracked records and do other repairs using methods shown me by John R.T. Davies.  There is a problem I unexpectedly encountered with the red Vocalions.  I came across a Yiddish one in shiny E plus condition.  The only problem was a small rim chip on one side which, while not extending all the way through the lead in area, was thin enough for me to be concerned that, left unattended, could cause problems later.  My normal method of working with rim chips is to find compatible shellac from a broken or valueless record, preferably on same label and same vintage.  Using a straight soldering iron, I then melt shellac from the broken record into the damaged area of the good record.  Some shellacs are easier to work with than others.  Brown shellac Perfects are difficult because, when the shellac melts, it becomes granular.  The red Vocalions do not melt.  At 
least, my soldering iron doesn’t seem to get hot enough to do so.
> 
> My solution was to take a file to a broken red Vocalion and make a powder, which I then mixed with a two-step epoxy.  But that created another problem.  Usually, when I make repairs to the edge of shellac records, I use a single edge razor to shave away the excess so that the surface of the repaired area is even and flat with the rest of the disc.  Dried epoxy, however, cannot be cut with the razor.  The only way I was able to flatten the slight bulge at the lead-in on the Yiddish record was to use fine sand paper.  That leaves an area that is dull in finish compared to the rest of the shiny disc.  When the opportunity to work on a red Vocalion next presented itself, I found that I could use the razor to slice the epoxy mixture if I didn’t wait until it completely dried.
> 
> Art
>