[Jukebox-list] Mechanism repairs

[Scott Cummings]

I had sent an email looking for good references for rebuilding/restoring a
Seeburg A mech.  Didn't get much of a response here so I went looking.
Ended up getting referred to a Dan Colabuno in Ohio.  Seems to have a pretty
good understanding of the challenges of working on an A mech (he even has an
A himself).  A couple of things.  First, has anyone worked with him or had
work done by him so I can get a reference.  Again, he was very nice on the
phone, but that doesn't mean much.  And second, he roughly estimated $1,500
to do a restoration and said it would take about a year to get back.  Now,
I'm up for spending money for a quality job, and this has to be the most
complicated part of the whole project, but that seemed too high for me.  As
I'm piecing together the restoration efforts of this machine I am seriously
wondering how anyone can be selling grade 1 restorations for $2500 and $3000
in some cases.  Anyone have any suggestions?  Mech performs most of its
tasks (not all, I said most), and can really benefit from a good cleaning
and maybe repainting.  $1,500 just seemed a little out of the ballpark.
Thanks again.

 

Scott