Re-purposing Vintage Tuners

[Dave F]

I always like tinkering around and I needed a decent set of era correct tuners for my 1942 LG-1. I found one set that was missing one gear and shaft and needs the buttons replaced. I started scanning the net for information about these era tuners. Willi has a great post over on UMGF

https://umgf.com/chronology-of-kluson-tuners-used-from-late-1936-to-t197854.htm

After shopping around I noticed the slotted head tuners from that era were more available and they looked the same except for the string hole in the shaft.

I picked up a set that looked in decent shape to try out. Here's some photos. 

I bought brass bar stock to size and a special tap for the screw holes. Made the shafts to match an original one then did an aging on the brass, replaced the buttons then assembled them. I'll do a few more sets to get better at it.

I followed Dan Erlewine's instructions on the buttons but I'm not totally happy with the results. I'll make some kind of jig then redo them.

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[Leonard McCoy]

The brass bars came out fantastic, the buttons are the problem. I'd first file down the mold marks and, since the buttons are entirely black, it would probably suffice for a convincing aging job to make the surface less shiny (scuff sanding).

[Dave F]

6 hours ago, Leonard McCoy said:

The brass bars came out fantastic, the buttons are the problem. I'd first file down the mold marks and, since the buttons are entirely black, it would probably suffice for a convincing aging job to make the surface less shiny (scuff sanding).

I'll give that a shot

[Dave F]

10 hours ago, Leonard McCoy said:

The brass bars came out fantastic, the buttons are the problem. I'd first file down the mold marks and, since the buttons are entirely black, it would probably suffice for a convincing aging job to make the surface less shiny (scuff sanding).

I did one strip and it does look a lot nicer

 

 

[Leonard McCoy]

Much better. One could go even further adding individual scratches and the like to the buttons, but they fit the aged tuner look well already.

[nifnof70]

When I saw the title (re-purposing) of this post, the first thing I thought of was using non-functional tuners as a key rack.

[Dave F]

I've been having a little fun  fixing up sets. Just last week, I took a set off a Regal that were pristine except for the buttons. I replaced the buttons and put  them out on EBay. The owner of Kluson  (WD Music Products -Larry Davis) contacted me and wound up buying them.