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I'm servicing my HMV 163 and am in need of a brown turntable felt. Because the belt doesn't hit a flat edge like on a Victrola turntable, I would prefer for it to pre-cut. Any help would be appreciated

Thanks
Martin

I buy packs of 12 inch square felt, easily found on eBay, which usually come in a selection of colours. The dark brown shade is a good match for the HMV original and the green is suitable for pre-1925 HMV's. Other colours including blue and red are useful when restoring coloured HMV portables.

Cutting them is not difficult if you use a record, carefully drawing round it and marking the centre hole for the spindle.

I've also cut the felt rim using sharp scissors as I didn't trust my blade knife. I did it under scepticism about the results, but it resulted fine just at the first trial. I don't remember well, but I believe I installed and glued the felt first, then let it set down, and later I cut the edge slowly, rotating the turntable by hand. The curved down border is a plus, for in a certain way it helps masking small errors. My felt was thin, and this also helps the scissors to run smoothly. I held the scissors firmly with the fingers, at the same time supporting the hand firmly on the motorboard, while cutting with the scissors set in position a few millimeters away from the turntable edge, at a suitable inner tilting angle, then rotate the turntable slowly with the other hand while cutting.

epigramophone wrote: Cutting them is not difficult if you use a record, carefully drawing round it and marking the centre hole for the spindle.

Excellent advice from epigramophone and I would add that the 3M "Spray mount" adhesive is a superb product which allows a certain amount of "slipability" before the final set, thus minor indiscretions can easily be ironed out.