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Winding the Grafonola

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 9:43 am
by Elaine Jones
Ok, I feel like such a newbie, but my question is about the cranking.
Will it stop when it's fully wound up? I'm so paranoid of breaking something that I have to re-crank several times through a record.

Re: Winding the Grafonola

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 10:13 am
by Jerry B.
It will stop when completely wound but I would be cautious. With a little experience you develop a feel when you near a completely wound motor.

A motor with spring damage may play a record but you can wind it forever and you will not reach the end. You are likely to hear a significant rumble during the winding.

A motor with good springs also may also rumble because of dry grease in the spring barrels.

I hope this helps. Jerry Blais

Re: Winding the Grafonola

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 10:36 am
by JerryVan
There's no need to fully wind it. You'll get a feel for "just enough", as Jerry suggests. Try cranking twice as much as you do now and see if you can make it through a side. I usually turn the crank 4 or 5 times between plays. That seems to keep up with things. If it doesn't for you, then try a few extra turns. There's no sin in having to crank a bit during play either.

Re: Winding the Grafonola

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2018 7:44 am
by Marco Gilardetti
Elaine, experiment a bit with it and discover how many turns are sufficient. Let your gramophone unwind completely first, then try with 40 turns of the crank. In general, for average 2-springs gramophones, 40 turns are just all right. If you can't listen through an entire record, then try with 50 turns, and so on.

Smaller one-spring gramophones or portables usually require more turns of the crank (60 usually), but even in that case you will feel that the crank is getting harder and harder to turn before you really hit the end of the spring. To set a top limit, it is very unlikely that you will need to go over 60-70 turns.

When you have assessed this, then try to see if 20 turns when changing from one record to the next are sufficient to listen to the next record entirely. If not, step up to 30. And so on again.