"That seals it so I don't have to polish it again," he said. "On the real light brass items, it will darken it a little bit."
The rubber hosing on his milking machines hasn't needed any restoration work, and is in good condition, he said. He tries to keep it that way: When he's not showing his collection, the rubber hoses are kept coiled in the bucket.
"Somebody told me it'll keep better if it's kept in the dark," he said.
"In milking machines, DeLaval and Surge, those are easier to find," he said. "But for all the rest, you just about have to go out of state. You have to get to Wisconsin and back around that area."
Many of the pieces in Joe's collection are 'imports.'
"I haven't left the state for any of it," he said. "I've bought all my stuff from my friends and other collectors who brought it to California."
Two of the oldest pieces in his collection are a BLK (Burrell, Lawrence and Kennedy) milker, possibly from Canada, and a Calf Way milker. The BLK goes back to before the turn of the century; the Calf Way to just after. But DeLaval pieces remain his favorite.
"I just like them best," he said. "That's what we used when we started."
Joe said he's been told there were as many as 70 different milking machines. With a collection of more than three dozen, he said, he has a ways to go.