Casters

[billybob62]

Who hates, does without, has replaced or insists on original casters on antique phonographs?

[CarlosV]

Funny you asked, I bough a disc cabinet that has casters, but unfortunately two of them got lost in the shipment. I would have kept them if I could find replacements, but these casters are metallic, from the 30s or 40s and it is unlikely I will find a pair any time soon, so I will remove the other two and sit the cabinet on its wooden lower frame. I have other cabinet gramophones that came with their original casters, two HMVs and one Ginn, and I just leave them alone. I placed pieces of cardboard under the casters to keep them from moving around when I wind them, and that works fine for me.

[melvind]

I think the casters are part of the design of the machines and I always prefer to have them intact or replace them with new/used casters that match the originals. I just think that is how they were intended to look.

Dan

[De Soto Frank]

If they're all missing, I generally do without.

If two or three are present, I prefer to complete the set.

[edisonplayer]

I had a Victrola XVI that didn't have the casters.I put modern ones on it that I got at the hardware store.Sadly,they didn't hold up very well. edisonplayer

[bigshot]

I think sometimes the dealer put the casters on. I have a Brunswick Cortez that theoretically shouldn't have casters, but this one has 1920s casters on it. I just cleaned the wheels all up. They were embedded with ancient cat hair. Now they spin free again. I like having casters, because then I can slide the machine out to the optimal place in the room to play it, rather than being stuck with it over on a side wall or behind another piece of furniture.

[52089]

Casters or not, I usually wind up putting my machines on modern sliders. Better than worrying about stuck wheels or damaged legs.

[billybob62]

I think non-obtrusive sliders, perhaps with stems to fit where the caster stems went in a machine that had original casters, is a really good idea. Where could we find something like that?

[PeterF]

The casters on machines that have been stored or moved over concrete floors often have problems, because unless the caster is spinning freely the abrasive concrete surface wears the rolling surfaces easily. Wooden ones get flat spots, rubber ones lose chunks of rubber, and metal ones get roughened.

All of those situations will then mar your hardwood flooring or tear up or snag your carpet.

The solution is to restore the casters' rolling surfaces, remove the casters altogether, or not use the casters to move the machine indoors. You can put nice glass caster cups under them to protect the floor/rugs - I'm especially partial to the green depression glass ones, but they also come in other cool colors.

The VTLA has cool embedded metal ball-and-socket casters, integral to the tips of the legs. Mine is missing one of the four metal balls - have any of you parted one out, and thus might have a spare for me?

[EarlH]

I like having castors on the machines that are supposed to have them, but the one's I really am not much of a fan of are those feltoid castors that Victor and Edison used in the teens for whatever reason. Those things at best are flat on one side, or moth eaten, or the felt is gone altogether. It's too bad really, but I usually just find a set from some junk piece of furniture and put under them. As long as they are oiled and the right size, they don't give too much grief. I'm tall as well, so I don't like making them any shorter... Antique dealers years ago used to remove castors almost always from furniture, but not the sockets as they are hard to pry out. If you find old shops around, especially if they used to do refinishing, they will often times have a pail or two of castors around. I used to have a few 5 gallon buckets full, but got rid of them a few years ago. Talk about matching a needle in a haystack...