Refurbishing a Pathé Omnibus

[walser]

Hi all,

I will share with you the process of refurbishing the motor of my little Pathé Omnibus.

when I bought it I only had at that time a small "hill and dale" record and when I tried it with the spring fully winded it was able to play one face without problem.

Some months later (I'mm currently living in Chile) I received some new records from France bigger than the one I had.

In this first picture you can see the gramophone with one small and one big record. (The phonograph will be part of another post in the near future)

Here it is, the tiny motor of the pink beast. When I received it I just oiled the shafts.

Three screws later it was resting in one of the plastic trays I use for this tasks.

The pinion that engages with the shaft of the winding handle is broken but still works. Extra care will be needed to dismantle it without breaking it.

The winding shaft is pretty worn. Who knows how many years it has been working without oil. I will oil it with copper grease.

The pawl of the ratchet was not working well and sometimes it jumped some teeth allowing the handle to go backwards a little. More about this later.

All the pieces awaiting to be cleaned. Time to focus on the mainspring.

The thrust bearing looks good and well oiled. Will the mainspring be in similar conditions?

Alas, no. Its dry as dinosaur bone.

With the help of a thick cloth bag I took out the mainspring from its case. No pictures of the process because you need both hands. This is the mainsping. Sticky and stinky.

2nd part will follow in some minutes

[walser]

To make thing even worse, the inner part of it was heavily rusted. It took me 3 hours cleaning and removing the dry oil and rust.

And voila! Here are al the parts cleaned. Instead of using brake cleaner to remove the dried oil I used this time a spray that is for cleaning airbrushes. Its not as powerful as the brake cleaner but can be used indoors (Something that is very important now because we are in winter in Chile)

Some may cringe seeing this been made bare-hands but I really cannot do this with gloves of any kind. If the barrel and springs are dry the risk of slipping and cutting you a finger is minimal and I can feel perfectly what's going during the process. I even had time to take a picture!

Spring back in the barrel and shining.

I oiled it with some sewing machine oil and then packing it with molybdenum grease.

The pawl was damaged and the last 2mm of one of the ends was almost missing. That's why it missed sometimes the ratchet. I brazed some metal and filed it down to the correct shape. Sorry, no pics of this part. Usually when I'm playing with the torch I forget to take pictures

The assembly was pretty straightforward. The only thing I found strange is that the two washers that serve as thrust bearings of the winding shaft are on one side instead of one at each side.

Again in one piece and working like a charm.

So the final test was mandatory. I took the longest record I had and it worked like a champion till the end.

Happy happy!

I hope you enjoyed reading it.

[VintageTechnologies]

That's a cute Pathé and a tiny motor!

A very nice presentation of your repairs. Thanks for sharing!

[fonografica]

Very nice and rare Pathéphone! You have done an excellent job.

Saludos desde España!

[CarlosV]

Very didatic presentation, congratulatons. I am curious about the cawl repair, did you machine a new end piece and brazed it?

[walser]

I am curious about the cawl repair, did you machine a new end piece and brazed it?

No, I just added a tiny blob of metal with the welding rod and filed it down to the correct shape.