The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Ron Sitko does not have an e-mail, but check your time zone difference and he does take calls in the evening. I have known him for over 35 years and he is a great resource for repairs and advice. His mailing address: 56 Church Hill Rd. Waterford, New York 12188 Phone: (518) 371-8549

kirtley2012 wrote:Good news is I managed to get the pin out, the threads in the reproducer body are still fine but the pin is totally stripped, I'm thinking about simply making a new brass pin to avoid postage times from usa, does ron sitko have an email address, alternatively, does anyone know the thread pattern for the pin?

Here is the info from The Compleat Talking Machine on Edison hinge block pins:

The original thread was a Waltham watch thread, but it is unlikely that anyone has the tools to cut this nowadays. An 0x80 tap is about the closest modern equivalent.

Bill

Thanks Bill

Through a stroke of luck on Ebay I've found an 0-80 die in the UK, I'll get that and try making my own brass pin, i couldn't find a hinge block in the UK, and I imagine the call to Ron Sitko would be expensive enough on its own, so I'll have a go at this, I've already got the brass anyway so what harm can it do.

Problem solved, I tried re-tapping the original pin, but obviously since it was already stripped the grooves were too shallow to hold, so I opted to make a new pin, I did this out of a small nail that was near enough the right size, tapped threads and shaped a head to fit into the original hinge block, a bit of superglue to join the two and the reproducer is back together, as good as new.

I've made some temporary gaskets out of thick photography paper, which seems to work fairly well.