1928 National Cash register Model 852 Restoration

Picked up this 100lb piece of history for $20! I had to save it!

It was jammed solid and locked up with no keys. ( Hence the price )

After purchase as I was rolling it on the cart across the pavement the drawer popped open, the person we bought it from heard the ding looked out and laughed as they yelled ” it is worth more now!” haha

Here is how it looked when I got it!

It is a massive unit! wow! Nothing much cool found in the drawer, the key we found does not fit anything on the register sadly. Well, time to take it apart and see if I can get it working again!

After much effort, I got it un jammed and working! Check it out!

Now the fun part, I know it works, now to take it apart to clean it.. and not brake it ha!

First step was pulling the buttons to clean and polish them up, takes about 5 hours per set of 9 buttons, to blast, wire wheel, and polish.

Getting the buttons out was very much a process and a puzzle, had to use a right angle screw driver to get to everything. But was worth it! I also cut some vinyl dots to cover the face of the buttons so the blasting and polishing would not damage them.

Here is a video of the removal process.

I started work on the chassis to clean it up, and broke a spring sadly, so will be working through that problem, I am only about 2/5 of the way through the buttons. Stay tuned for future updates, this will be a longer than normal project!