The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I have a Columbia 100 tone arm with a pot metal bracket that has a chunk missing from it my plan is to remove the arm clean the bracket and fill in the missing chunk and then cast a new one from resin. However i cannot find anyway of removing the arm from the bracket.

When these arms were assembled, the pot-metal stand was opened a little by inserting a blade into the gap, and the ball bearings dropped through via that cut-out in the ring round the base of the arm, into a groove in the stand. The gap was then closed by inserting the nut and bolt, and tightened until it held the arm just enough to prevent it slopping about. The pot-metal at that stage had a certain amount of flexibility, but try to open that gap now the pot metal is nearly 100 years old and the stand will snap, I guarantee it! Been there, done that etc. In short, there is no way to remove the arm from the stand, anything you do will have to be done in situ.

By the way, you are not thinking that the cut-out in the ring round the base of the arm is "a missing chunk", I presume?

Yes I never knew what those little cut outs were for, and mine has a large chunk missing on the opposite side. I may try cutting it open with a cutter that fixes into a drill cutting the bracket the opposite side to the hole for the bolt, the arm has to be discarded anyway so little can be lost.