Disassembly of Victor Orthophonic Bracket?

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stetam
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Disassembly of Victor Orthophonic Bracket?

Post by stetam »

Is there a trick in separating the two sections of the tonearm bracket? I removed the two screws and it won't budge of the bottom plate.

Stetam

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Inigo
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Re: Disassembly of Victor Orthophonic Bracket?

Post by Inigo »

If you can post an image... maybe we could help. What two sections of the bracket are you referring to?
AFAIK the tonearm is suspended in the support by means of its base, resting on the base of the support, and by means of a pin in the upper part of the elbow, which is supported by a set screw on top of the support. Once you unscrew the pin and extract it, you can take out the tonearm, and the support is only in one piece, I believe. The support base is screwed onto the upper plate of the horn mouth, on the board, and I've learned herein that there should be a thick rubber joint between them.
That rubber joint may be the problem. It may be perished and stuck, and that prevents the support base from being detached from the horn mouth upper plate below. But, I repeat, apart from that, the support is in one piece. It's made of pot metal, so you must try not to force it, or it will break.
Someone told herein just a few days ago that the trick to detach it consists on inserting a wide and thin palette or screwdriver under the base of the tonearm and try to detach it from the horn, forcing the perished rubber joint to separate, bit by bit, along the perimeter of the base, very carefully. Something more must be also inserted under your palette to protect the wood from being scratched with the efforts you're doing when twisting the palette to force the support to separate.
I'm not an expert, but I've learned this from other colleagues herein. Besides that, I have an Aeolian with a similar arrangement, and I had to extract the base of the support from the horn in a similar way. My rubber joint wasn't perished, indeed it has been very well preserved for being 100 years old! But it was stuck to the support base, and I had to do the same to detach the support from the machine.
Anyway, if you send some photos before doing anything, just to illustrate your problem, maybe someone really knowledgeable about Orthophonics can chime in and help.
Inigo

JerryVan
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Re: Disassembly of Victor Orthophonic Bracket?

Post by JerryVan »

stetam wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 7:27 pm Is there a trick in separating the two sections of the tonearm bracket? I removed the two screws and it won't budge of the bottom plate.

Stetam
The pot metal of the bracket will be swollen and very tight in the flange. Usually, it needs to be broken up to remove it. Not a problem, since the only reason to remove the bracket, is to replace it with a new one, because it's already broken...

stetam
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Re: Disassembly of Victor Orthophonic Bracket?

Post by stetam »

Mine was broken into three pieces at the pin. Today I used Gorilla Super Glue to get it into correct position and tomorrow I will use JB weld to repair it. Then dremel, sand and paint. You will never be able to tell it was broken. ;)

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AZ*
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Re: Disassembly of Victor Orthophonic Bracket?

Post by AZ* »

Stetam,

Several decades ago, I repaired a broken Orthophonic bracket much like yours using similar methods. I even had to recreate (using JB Weld) the top portion of the bracket which had broken off and was missing when I acquired the machine. I tapped the newly formed top portion to hold the set screw which kept the pivot pin in place. That fix was very serviceable, and I never had a problem with it. On subsequent machines, however, I purchased the excellent repro brackets previously made by the Smiths. Getting the old bracket out of the steel mounting plate was usually impossible without breaking the bracket into pieces for the reasons mentioned by JerryVan. While I now prefer to use the repros, your technique, if done properly and with care is perfectly acceptable and can save $.
Best regards ... AZ*

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