Opera owners, question on shut off bar?

[marcapra]

If you own or know the Edison Opera you know there is a shut-off bar that shuts the motor off at the end of a record. It's very simple in operation. You set the movable bar so that the pointer is at the end of the record groove. Then as the mandrel moves closer to the left the shut off bar moves closer to the shut off lever and shuts it off. On the tip of the bar is a small rubber cap kind of like the eraser on the end of a pencil. The rubber part on my Opera cracked and came off. What could be used to replace that rubber tip?

Thanks, Marc.

[CarlosV]

You can use the eraser that comes on the tip of small pencils, it fits well

[marcapra]

I think you mean those skinny pencils for children? I haven't seen one of those since I was a kid. I wonder where you would find one of those? They certainly don't sell them in stores.

[melvind]

I've never seen an Opera mechanism shutoff with rubber on it. Mine works just fine without it and doesn't seem to leave any marks or anything. Did they all have that on them when they were new?

[CarlosV]

I think you mean those skinny pencils for children? I haven't seen one of those since I was a kid. I wonder where you would find one of those? They certainly don't sell them in stores.

I confess that I stole it from a nice pocket phone book that my wife has. It has a little pencil with a back rubber eraser that fitted well in my opera. As attenuating factor, she did not use the pencil anyway. If you don't find one of these, you can cut off a cylindrical back eraser from a normal pencil and drill a hole halfway to fit the break rod. It would be easy to try this solution, if it does not look good you can remove it.

[JerryVan]

I've never seen an Opera mechanism shutoff with rubber on it. Mine works just fine without it and doesn't seem to leave any marks or anything. Did they all have that on them when they were new?

Same here.

[marcapra]

I went back to Staples to see if they sell those little address books with the little pencil. They had the little address books, but no pencil. Finally the clerk showed me some miniature eraser refills for mechanical pencils. they were just the right size, but were about ½" long. I just had to pry off a metal jacket to get at the eraser. So I can cut it in half and drill a small hole on one side to fit on the shut off bar.

[TinfoilPhono]

Please post pictures when you do. I was not aware that there was ever a rubber bumper. It seems unnecessary but if it was originally used I would like to add one to my Opera.

[marcapra]

Look at the end of your shut off bar on the left side. You will see how the bar gets skinnier at the end. That skinny part was meant to hold the rubber cap. Why did they put that on there if it works perfectly well without it? Mine does not work well without it. When I line up the pointer on the right, the shut off bar sometimes does not shut off the motor. It needs that extra ¼" to fully push that lever over when you play a cylinder that sticks a bit out from the mandrel. another reason is I'm guessing they didn't like a metal on metal rod scraping on the lever and possibly marring the finish.

[JimN]

Wow! I owned an Opera and Amberola III for 41 years, and and an Edison School for 10 years, and never heard of the following:

1. That the right end of the shutoff bar is meant to be lined up the the final groove on the cylinder
2. That any Opera mechanism has ever had a rubber tip on the left end of the shutoff bar

Looking at pictures of my Opera and Amberola III that I sold last year, I do see the skinny part on the Opera for the rubber tip. The Amberola III, however, does not have any tip for a rubber stopper.

Also, my Edison School does not have any provision for a rubber tip. The end of the shut off bar is just rounded off at the left end.

I wonder what machines and what vintages had the rubber tip, and which ones didn't?

Jim Nichol