The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

How do you guys manage to get those tabs lined up with the holes? I mark the plates and the barrels and still have alignment issues! Any tricks to that?

This one is especially bad, A previous repairer drilled and tapped new and bigger holes in the spring barrels. Instead of using the old screw holes, the guy shifted the cover a bit and made new holes.
Dave D

I'm usually a big fan of Columbia products in general, but those cursed tabbed (or secured with separate plates) spring barrels are awful. I've had much better luck since carefully marking them (A=A, B=B, etc.) but they're still no fun. You have my sympathy!

George P.

I just reloaded the barrels on a BN. Stick the thing together, find a tiny ice pick or a nail or something, and work it around where the holes line up. Put in a screw loosely. Then try a few more screws, alternating sides of the barrel. Know how, when you change a car tire, you use a pattern instead of just tightening them in a circle? That's what I did.

Now mine might have been made differently. Columbias are super cool but weird. Hope it works for you.

VanEpsFan1914 wrote:I just reloaded the barrels on a BN. Stick the thing together, find a tiny ice pick or a nail or something, and work it around where the holes line up. Put in a screw loosely. Then try a few more screws, alternating sides of the barrel. Know how, when you change a car tire, you use a pattern instead of just tightening them in a circle? That's what I did.

Now mine might have been made differently. Columbias are super cool but weird. Hope it works for you.

That's good advice, and I second the "ice pick" technique. Also, I don't tighten the screws until they're all in place.

Good luck, Dave!

George P.

Thanks for the great tip. I can't wait to try it.
I usually dread these style of motors and end up spending way too much time on them!
Dave

I have found that when a particular tab, or two, will not cooperate in being aligned, that a grab & twist with a plier can bring them into alignment.