CL - Brunswick Seville - Bellingham, Wa

[OrthoFan]

RE the Columbia Grafonola Portable 130, it is correct except for the reproducer. It had a black exterior, red interior, blue velvet turntable covering, red painted tonearm and Viva-Tonal reproducer. Unfortunately, they used terrible pot-metal especially on the reproducer, so most are crumbling beyond repair. I have two in bad condition that I hope to combine into one usable machine at some point. It looks so funky with all those colors that my daughter said that's one even she would like

Andreas

Many thanks for confirming! The one I posted a link to above -- https://bellingham.craigslist.org/atq/d ... 31758.html -- on the site link that La Cah supplied in his original post looks to be totally authentic, then. It also appears to have its original sound box:

It seems well-designed, and should sound pretty good once restored.

OrthoFan
(La Cah: sorry if I hijacked your post. )

[arkensaw]

Sure wish I could have bought that one . I just bought a Seville today and it has motor problems . Since I am totally new to Vintage Phonographs , I know 0+0 about them except that the crank goes in that little hole. It does wind up somewhat but doesn't have enough muscle to play more than a few turns on a record . I haven't torn into the motor area yet but from what I have read it seems like one of the springs must be broken.
If anyone can help a disabled VietNam vet work through this problem , please give me directions.

[Lah Ca]

Sure wish I could have bought that one . I just bought a Seville today and it has motor problems . Since I am totally new to Vintage Phonographs , I know 0+0 about them except that the crank goes in that little hole. It does wind up somewhat but doesn't have enough muscle to play more than a few turns on a record . I haven't torn into the motor area yet but from what I have read it seems like one of the springs must be broken.
If anyone can help a disabled VietNam vet work through this problem , please give me directions.

I can't help you directly as I know nothing about Brunswick machines directly, no hands on experience at all, and at this point in my gramophone-life, most of my general gramophone experience is vicarious, things learned from people here, from reading, from videos, and from fellow members of CAPS, the Canadian Antique Phonograph Society.

But the basic concepts of wind up gramophone motors are simple in the abstract, although some motors are not simple.

There is a main spring in a drum that holds the tension that powers the gramophone--it is a long flat steel ribbon spring, coiled up into the drum. Some larger better machines have multiple drums. I would suspect that a Brunswick machine, a higher-end quality machine, will have more than one main spring drum.

There is a worm gear that engages with the drum. The crank handle attaches to one end of the worm gear shaft and when you turn the handle, the main spring is wound up. There will be some sort of non-return mechanism that prevents the worm gear from turning in reverse and releasing the main spring tension suddenly. Such release can be dangerous as the crank handle can kick around and hit a hand or finger. In one of my machines the non-return mechanism seems to be a ratchet mechanism. In the others it is a spring wrapped around the worm gear shaft and then attached on one end to the framework of the motor. The spring allows the shaft to be turned in one direction while restricting its movement in the other.

There are a series of disk gears that engage the main spring drum with the spindle for the turntable platter and drive the platter around.

Then there is a speed regulating mechanism called a governor. It is on a worm gear shaft that also engages with the spindle shaft for the turntable platter. The governor has a kind of a sleeve that slides along the worm gear shaft. The sleeve has a kind of brake plate at one end and is attached to the shaft at its other end by three leaf springs which have weights in their centres. There will also be some sort of arm mechanism which will have a leather or felt pad that will engage against the brake plate to control the speed of the spindle shaft by controlling the speed of the governor's worm gear shaft. As the governor shaft turns faster, the weights on the springs are thrown outward, and this draws the sleeve with its brake plate towards the mechanism with the leather or felt pad, thereby controlling the speed at which governor shaft and thus the spindle shaft turns, keeping it at a constant speed when everything is working properly. There will be a control for the mechanism with the leather or felt pad on the outside of the machine usually in front of the turntable platter to the left or right. This control changes the distance between the brake plate and the leather or felt pad when the machine is at rest. It is the motor's speed control. When the motor is turning--the smaller the distance here, the more friction between between the plate and the pad and the slower the motor will turn--the greater the distance here, the less friction and the faster the motor will turn.

What could go wrong?

Age: wear. fatigue. dirt, dried up lubrication.

The old lubricants used a hundred years ago or so harden to the point where they become wax-like or even chalk-like-crumbly, and instead of assisting free movement they restrict it. Main springs were packed in grease inside their drums.

Also main springs can fatigue. Something that was a long flat ribbon of spring steel forced unwillingly into a coil when new, something that if released would immediately explode back into its long flat ribbon form, may now be somewhat tamed by time an use, still springy but somewhat conforming to a coil shape, its power thus reduced. Sometimes springs can break from fatigue.

My best guess from what you say is that your machine most likely needs to be cleaned and re-lubricated. Once this is done, odds are that it will work just fine.

My best advice is that you take pictures of your machine that help identify it exactly and then start a new thread in the Machines section here. There are people here with seriously deep knowledge, decades and decades of hands on experience. Mostly they are kind and helpful. I am reasonably certain that someone expert in Brunswick machines will take the time to offer specific advice.

You could also join APS or CAPS. CAPS accepts non-Canadian members, and their meetings have Zoom links.

And if you give your location (not address), you may find an enthusiast near you who can give advice in person.

Cheers. Good luck.