Fixing a Recorder

[Mr Grumpy]

Hasn't for me. Your results may vary.

[Chuck]

The genuine Edison mica recorder diaphragms are
.002 inch thick.

What is the thickness of the one you just cut?

Chuck

[winsleydale]

I haven't measured it yet. I just know that it's much thinner than the reproducer micas I have seen.

[edisonphonoworks]

All the Recorder mica diaphragms I measured are also the same size Chuck mentioned .002" in thick. Remember buy new blanks if you intend to record, do not efface original brown wax. Dictaphone wax may contain lead oxide. Ediphone wax is very similar to brown wax, except paraffin, and stearin pitch, make them unstable. Three of us make new blank cylinder records, Chuck, Myself and Paul Morris.

[winsleydale]

Three of us make new blank cylinder records, Chuck, Myself and Paul Morris.

Oh, trust me, I have been on all of your websites many times already...

[winsleydale]

Well, APSCO got back to me about the thin mica and they don't carry it but for $14 they will send me the whole bottom part of an original recorder, only needing the stylus. That makes things easier. I will still fix this one up, I think, just in case I somehow break one or the other of them.

[Chuck]

Winsleydale,

Does the $14 for the recorder hulk include the
swinging weight with the diaphragm?

Hulk is just my term for these commonly found recorders.
Many are around that way, missing the cutting stylus
and the stylus holder, but often with intact mica diaphragms.

If this is the case, then you can use those diaphragms
if a few of them can be found in good shape.

With a bit of luck, you may even be able to carefully
salvage the gaskets out of those hulks and re-use them
to rebuild with.

Be careful and watch closely that the hulks you purchase
include the little sliding tube within the tube.
That part is required to make a recorder work right.
I bought some hulks one time that were supposedly
complete less cutters and holders but then when they
arrived they were missing the little sliding tubes.

I was able to get the seller to find the missing tubes
and they were then shipped to me.

Recorders are fun and you will enjoy working on them
and using them.

And, as Shawn says, Him, Paul Morris, and I are
making brand new brown wax blanks and have them
available for sale.

You can find an old electric motor driven high-speed office type Dictaphone or Ediphone shaver from
Fleabay or Craigslist. You can learn to cut down
some dictation blanks for recording experiments.

That is how I started out back in about 1978.
Now I am all done defacing and ruining perfectly
good 6 inch long Dictaphone or Ediphone blanks
for use as Edison phonograph blanks.

Now that I can make as many decent brown wax blanks
as I'll ever need, ruining good Dictaphone blanks
just seems like a waste.

Along the way I have collected up several Dictaphone shavers and parts of shavers to have around so that even if one fails or breaks down, I can still fill orders
for brown wax blanks by firing up a spare machine.

One time a few years ago I found another shaver
along with (2) Dictaphone machines. One machine
does both play and record. It's a model 12.
The other machine is a Cameo model transcriber and that's play-only, it was the machine that the typist
lady used with hearing tubes and foot pedal start/stop
and phrase-repeat when she was typing up the dictated
letter.

Those machines are fun too. The cylinder turns
at 80 RPM, and there are 160 grooves to the inch.
As such, a full 6 inch dictation cylinder plays
for 12 minutes.

So yes, I think you are doing it right to be
thinking about experimenting with Edison recorders.
It takes some time and patience, but it's all pretty
straight-forward stuff as far as seeing how it works
and understanding how it needs to be so it works right.

In fact, it's all common sense stuff.
(Imagine that in this day in age!!)

Chuck

[winsleydale]

It is just the bottom part (I would guess the swinging weight) with the diaphragm and stylus bar intact. I was going to put my stylus onto it and swap my empty weight out with it. I have the little sliding tube. That way, I can focus on getting my weight fixed, without the false sense of urgency that tends to plague me.

[alang]

That way, I can focus on getting my weight fixed, without the false sense of urgency that tends to plague me.

Yeah, I've been trying to focus on fixing my weight for years, with very limited success. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Andreas

[winsleydale]

That way, I can focus on getting my weight fixed, without the false sense of urgency that tends to plague me.

Yeah, I've been trying to focus on fixing my weight for years, with very limited success. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Andreas

The struggle is real