My first Brunswick Ultona rebuild this eve.

[carylee]

Got new mica and gasket tube from Ron Sitko today, so this evening is the Ultona re-assembly. I'll probably by mixing up the parts from my old reproducer with the parts from one sent to me, to make a "double head" reproducer out of the best of what I have. There's a lot of info archived here, so I think I've got it figured out. I'm not going full cosmetic restoration, just cleaning, probably new gold paint inside, and re-assembly. I want it to function correctly. Seems pretty straightforward. BUT!!! I know nothing of the technical details of reassembly. Are there any pitfalls to watch for? Any specific torques involved when tightening screws? Etc? I'm hoping to have at least the standard 78 side working. I have no Pathé stylus, and the Edison side has the string broken, but no hurry there, I have no Pathé or Edison disks! But many "new" old 78's to listen to, and at least a hundred brand new steel needles.

Is there a way to tell if an Edison stylus is any good? Maybe using a magnifier or jeweler's loupe?

I read a thread about replacing the silk string on the Edison side by opening up the brass ends with an awl, inserting string, gluing and crimping. I think I can do that, but if I screw it up (It's pretty small and I can't see as good as I used to), is there a source for a replacement?

Thanks! -Cary

[carylee]

Reassembly went well. The improvement in sound is incredible. When I played a few records last night, the volume seemed kind of low. It was louder with the lid open than with the lid closed. I spend quite a bit of time looking for "air leads"...primarily sound leaks. Figured I was going to have to grease up the multi-piece tone arm today, and maybe try filing the groove in the tone arm base with oil, for the "liquid seal" talked about in another thread. The sound quality "under the hood" was good..it just seemed like there was a lot of it.

Realized this morning that I had the volume control baffle shut. Amazing how that works.

[mikejk]

carylee,
Congrats on the Ultona rebuild. Air leaks will kill the sound volume in places like the reproducer balance arm pivot, which needs grease applied. I have rebuilt three double sided Ultonas and have each one playing all three record types. Check your Edison stylus with a loup or strong magnifying glass, it needs to be conical in shape with a smooth rounded tip. I have to go to work now, I can share more details and pics later. Mike

[carylee]

carylee,
Congrats on the Ultona rebuild. Air leaks will kill the sound volume in places like the reproducer balance arm pivot, which needs grease applied. I have rebuilt three double sided Ultonas and have each one playing all three record types. Check your Edison stylus with a loup or strong magnifying glass, it needs to be conical in shape with a smooth rounded tip. I have to go to work now, I can share more details and pics later. Mike

Thanks for the info on greasing the pivot. That is one area I might not have thought of. I've read that petroleum jelly is a good "grease" to use? I've got a loup around here somewhere, so I'll have to dig it out to look at the Edison stylus. If it "passes inspection", I'll try to "re string" it. I picked up some silk string today (hope No.2 is the right size, I'd read someone uses unwaxed dental floss for this, so I kind of judged size on that).

My original needle bar has all four of the fingers for the Pathé stylus broken off. A fellow user of this forum sent me another one with a bunch of other parts. It had three remaining "fingers", so I think I could have made it work..EXCEPT, the end that attached to the mica was bent out of shape, and trying to bend it back, the little loop that screws to the mica broke off. I don't know if I can solder it..it's pretty tiny. Any other tips, and/or photos would be most welcome.

[mikejk]

carylee
I can dig around for a needle bar, I know I have one here on a dead reproducer somewhere, and if it is the one you need I would be happy to send it to you. I have had good luck buying link cord matierial and small metal eyelets that can be crimped on, at our areas large craft chain store "Michael's" in the beading aisle. The cord that I buy and use is not silk, but it is the right size and sturdy and the light green color that Edison used. I intend on posting pics, but I must rely on my wife to do it so it takes a while. I have found that petroleum jelly dries up quickly, so have used auto grease to see how long that last.I also put this grease in the tone arm elbow to seal it. Hope this helps, Mike

[carylee]

carylee
I can dig around for a needle bar, I know I have one here on a dead reproducer somewhere, and if it is the one you need I would be happy to send it to you. I have had good luck buying link cord matierial and small metal eyelets that can be crimped on, at our areas large craft chain store "Michael's" in the beading aisle. The cord that I buy and use is not silk, but it is the right size and sturdy and the light green color that Edison used. I intend on posting pics, but I must rely on my wife to do it so it takes a while. I have found that petroleum jelly dries up quickly, so have used auto grease to see how long that last.I also put this grease in the tone arm elbow to seal it. Hope this helps, Mike

Yes, that info helps, thank you! If you have a spare needle bar, that would be wonderful. The only other part I need for the sound system is a tone arm base. I'm going to try to fix mine with JB weld..but I don't have the missing chunk, so it will take quite a bit of fill. I greased my tone arm up with petroleum jelly today, mainly because that's what I had, and since it was clear, I figured it would be easier to clean up if I got messy. The auto grease I have on hand has quite a strong smell to it, and the jelly was pretty odorless. I might try a white lithium grease down the road. I'm still in the experimental phase with that. I made sure I didn't get any on the mica or rubber gasket. Ron Sitko said that white tubing is made of natural rubber and oil will break it down. I think I noticed an increase in volume somewhat, which is good..means I'm getting familiar with how the thing works. Every little bit seemed to be incremental. I even poured oil in the groove inside the tone arm base for the "liquid seal". I was able to fill it to the broken part, and the rim of the tone arm did sit down in the oil, then noticed that there was probably a big leak through the groove where the limiting/stop screw goes..that's whats broken on my tone arm base. I filled that slot with grease too.

I've heard of Michael's. We've got a Hobby Lobby here, and they had the silk string in their jewelry dept for stringing beads. I didn't know it was supposed to be green. The tiny bit of thread on mine looked white. I found my loupe and took a look at the Ediso stylus. It looked ok in daylight, but my eyes aren't very good anymore. I'll have to hit it with a brighter more direct light and really inspect it. -Cary

Thanks for the idea on the crimp on eyelets. I've never seen those. I'll have to take a look and see if I can find some.

[mikejk]

carylee
I have your needle bar and have removed it from the reproducer. It is a nice one with all the threaded fingers and the diaphragm screw and washer. It does not have a thumb screw or the threaded sapphire retaining ring , so I hope you have them. I don't have a tone arm base, but have used JB Weld myself and have done some remarkable repairs with it. The liquid seal at the tone arm base is new info for me and I am going to clean out the grease and replace it with oil, that sounds better for movement. The link need not be green, thats just the color Edison used on his Diamond Disc Phonograph and my personal choice for the Ultona, the original was white. A sure fire way to test your diamond would be to get a Diamond Disc, and after re-stringing it, run the reproducer in the smooth inside deadwax and see if it leaves an etched ring. If it is good, it will not leave an etched ring, and therefore not damage an Edison record. Of course remember to adjust the tone arm for Edison play back, main tone arm pulled all the way out of the elbow, and counter weight slid all the way back in the counter balance arm. I guess the next step would be for you to PM me with your mailing info and I will drop the needle bar in the mail. Mike

[Phonofreak]

I learned a little trick to see if an Edison diamond point for a DD or diamond B reproducer is good. Rub your finger nail on the diamond point lightly. If your finger nail is scratched, then the point is no good. If your finger nail is not scratched, then the point is good.
Harvey Kravitz

[carylee]

carylee
I have your needle bar and have removed it from the reproducer. It is a nice one with all the threaded fingers and the diaphragm screw and washer. It does not have a thumb screw or the threaded sapphire retaining ring , so I hope you have them. I don't have a tone arm base, but have used JB Weld myself and have done some remarkable repairs with it. The liquid seal at the tone arm base is new info for me and I am going to clean out the grease and replace it with oil, that sounds better for movement. The link need not be green, thats just the color Edison used on his Diamond Disc Phonograph and my personal choice for the Ultona, the original was white. A sure fire way to test your diamond would be to get a Diamond Disc, and after re-stringing it, run the reproducer in the smooth inside deadwax and see if it leaves an etched ring. If it is good, it will not leave an etched ring, and therefore not damage an Edison record. Of course remember to adjust the tone arm for Edison play back, main tone arm pulled all the way out of the elbow, and counter weight slid all the way back in the counter balance arm. I guess the next step would be for you to PM me with your mailing info and I will drop the needle bar in the mail. Mike

Thank you! I'll PM you my address. I do have a couple of thumbscrews, but no knurled retaining ring. I will scrounge one up somewhere. We've got a couple of decent hardware stores with decent specialty fastener aisles..and then there is always our Hobby Lobby store...I've spent a lot of time searching their "parts bags" and have found things totally unrelated to my current project that worked for whatever I was doing. A good needle bar will be one stop closer to what I have now! Thanks again! And the knowledge of how to adjust the tone arm for proper playing is great.

Regarding the Edison side, I've read about using an awl to open up the fittings. Any suggestions of the kind of glue to use? I was planning on crimping with small needle nose pliers..does that seem ok?

I was able to pick up some 78's from a local antique store for a buck a piece. I ran across a real gem in the stack: "3 O'Clock in the Morning", a 1922 recording by Irish tenor John McCormack. It's a single sided Victor. It is in exceptionally good condition and plays wonderfully! It has some bell tones that really shine. I'm really digging this machine now! -Cary

[carylee]

I learned a little trick to see if an Edison diamond point for a DD or diamond B reproducer is good. Rub your finger nail on the diamond point lightly. If your finger nail is scratched, then the point is no good. If your finger nail is not scratched, then the point is good.
Harvey Kravitz

Thank you for that great tip Harvey! I will give that a try.

-Cary