The Victrola Mystery Hole

[MikeB]

I went for years without buying a Victrola IX, and now I found three of them in the space of a couple of months. Here is #3, (the really cheap one!), which is a bit of a mystery. It is a 1914 "F" machine.

There is a hole drilled in the cabinet on the left side of the cabinet, near the rear. Normally when I see something like this I think that the machine was re-motored, but that doesn't appear to be the case, because:
1) The hole is too far back for a crank, well behind where the motor board ends.
2) The motor looks original to me, but maybe I am missing something.

Everything on the right side looks correct, the crank shaft lines up with the original crank hole on the right, and the machine appears largely right to me. There is also one hole in the motor board that I can't account for as well, and a square hole cut in the bottom, roughly beneath the hole on the left. The extra hole in the motor board can be seen on the right of the photo of the motor board top, and on the bottom photo of the motor board.

I think this machine is completely restorable, but I am hoping that it has not been re-motored.

What do you think?

[oliver]

I don't think your machine was re-motored.

First thing that comes to mind: could someone in the past have tried to rig up some kind of lamp on the side of the Victrola? That might explain the extra hole on the side (for a threaded lamp rod) and the square hole in the bottom panel (for a wire)...just an idea...

Nice looking machine. Thank you for saving it.

[Torjazzer]

I'm with Oliver on this
I think that your motor is original. I can't image any fitting motor that would need a winging key on that side of the machine. That hole must have accommodated some kind of add-on/attachment. Again, nice save on that machine. I have one just like it. Oak Victrolas are always highly prized.

[MikeB]

Thanks. I too think that the motor is original. The extra motor board hole still has me stumped, though, circled here is yellow. It does look like a washer was here at some point.

As for the hole in the side, I would like to try and plug it. My woodworking skills are very limited, but we will see how it goes.

[FellowCollector]

It's interesting that the extra hole on the side of the cabinet appears to be threaded. One would not expect a drilled hole to be threaded unless it was made to receive a threaded whatever.

[oliver]

As for the hole in the side, I would like to try and plug it. My woodworking skills are very limited, but we will see how it goes.

If you can come up with a matching piece of veneer, you've already won half the battle.

Another possible explanation would be that the machine was used on a ship and someone had secured it with some kind of contraption to keep it from moving around...The extra hole in the motor board however, beats me.
I find it perfectly fine for these machines to have scars. After all, they are not really inanimate objects and most have endured hard and demanding lives, kind of like us.

[hbick2]

There is another mystery hole in the motor board that looks very much like the one that is circled. It is on the front-left side, on the joint, an inch or two in from the corner. It is fainter than the other but looks like the same size.

[soundgen]

Almost certainly at some time it has been used with an electric pickup connected to a radio speaker easy to recreate this !

[MikeB]

There is another mystery hole in the motor board that looks very much like the one that is circled. It is on the front-left side, on the joint, an inch or two in from the corner. It is fainter than the other but looks like the same size.

That's the hole for the motor board lift knob. It's missing on this machine but they are easy to find.

[GregVTLA]

Almost certainly at some time it has been used with an electric pickup connected to a radio speaker easy to recreate this !

That'd explain the hole in the side and on the motor board, as well as the missing reproducer!