My New RCA Victor Portable

[Lah Ca]

I will start documenting my new RCA Portable. It would be nice to discover what model it is, but seeing as it is a Canadian model, this may never be known for certain.

Component parts of it are American-made. Through the holes for the spindle and the speed control, I can see Made in US in the casting of the motor. On the bottom of the platter is stamped, very lightly and not completely legible, Made in United States of America. There would have been a patent number, too, but the stamping was too light to record it. I can only see Paten ... The latches on the case are also American-made.

Outside of Case

I will start the outside of the case. The covering (if this were a modern guitar or amp case I would say Tolex but I have a feeling this would wrong here) is in very good condition. The feet are largely worn off. The leather handle is still in excellent condition but if I do not do some conservation work on it, it won't stay that way. The crank aperture is on the right side of the case. The crank goes in straight, not at an angle.

[Lah Ca]

Inside of Lid and Record Holder

The cloth covering of the record holder matches that of the case exactly for colour and texture. I am reasonably certain it is original to the case. I have included a close up of the RCA Victor label on the record holder. The logo is the only RCA Victor badging visible on the machine without removing the platter.

[Lah Ca]

Motorboard and Details

There is an RCA Victor, Montreal, label with a serial number pasted to the motorboard. There are two sets of paint stencilled numbers, one near the RCA Victor label and another single digit beside the aperture for the speed control. I am wondering if the stencilled numbers might be date coding 012041 4 - December 4, 1941? Only speculation ...

[Lah Ca]

Tone Arm and Reproducer/Soundbox

The front piece of the tone arm, the gold plated part, rotates at the joint with the bare pot metal part, up for play, down for storage in the retainer. The reproducer rotates slightly, but I think this is only because its set screw needs tightening a little. Changing needles is a little awkward. The rubber gasket/bushing in the socket of the reproducers is old and flaky. The base of the tone arm appears to be riveted to the motorboard, which might make servicing awkward.

[Lah Ca]

Platter and Crank

The cloth on the platter appears to be entirely original and is excellent condition. The crank is threaded and must be screwed into the winding shaft for the motor and then unscrewed to remove it. The stamping on the bottom of the platter was mentioned above.

[Lah Ca]

The Horn

The horn goes right around the case to the back where its mouth opens. It is finished inside with blue flocking which has a slight marbling effect in it. It appears to have been sprayed on. The horn is very loud, almost deafening in small room with medium tone needles.

The one very odd thing here is that the mouth shape of the horn and the aperture at the back of the motorboard for it do not match perfectly. There is a sizeable gap near the base of the tone arm. The motorboard fits the case perfectly, and there is no sign of any tampering with it or of it having been cut down or refinished. Curious.

[MATTROSE94]

Nice! If I had to guess, it is a 1940s model. I think that RCA made portable Victrolas in this style into the 1950s iirc.

[Lah Ca]

Nice! If I had to guess, it is a 1940s model. I think that RCA made portable Victrolas in this style into the 1950s iirc.

Thanks.

If the paint stencilled numbers are a production date code, a production date of 1941 might be a good guess.

[Lah Ca]

I will link this thread which contains a lot of interesting, speculative but knowledgeable discussion of the pictures that the seller had posted:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=52426

Interesting read, IMHO.

[Lah Ca]

I need to figure out how best to remove the motor board here so that I can have a look at the motor. This is complicated by the fact that the tone arm seems riveted to the motor board.

I suspect that the motor is dying of thirst.

When I first tried it out at the seller's house, it would not play a record, even when fully wound. The drag of the needle stalled the motor immediately.

I took the platter off and let the motor run the springs down. It did not take long for the spindle to stop, but if I gave the spindle a spin, it would start up and run for a bit more. I repeated this process a few times, each time taking longer for the springs to run down, and then it would play a record right through. I would guess that whatever lubrication remains on the worm gear for the governor is probably pretty gummy.

The seller bought the machine 30 to 40 years ago and had not used it in about 30 years. He just put it up on a shelf in a nice dry storage room.

When I get it apart, I will take pictures.