Auction find: portable by Caswell of Wisconsin

[estott]

Rotate the reproducer to the left to play lateral discs!!! It rotates on the tone arm. There should be a knurled securing screw on the mount.

There is mo securing screw but the protrusion visible behind the reproducer probably contains a spring loaded stop that drops into a depression.

[jboger]

Well slap me silly! As I live and breathe! I do declare! And sundry other expressions.

Do you mean I've been trying to play laterally cut records with the reproducer in the vertical position?

That protrusion holds a little set screw. I loosened it and rotated a short section of the tone arm and repositioned the reproducer into a position I'm more familiar with. Lo and behold! The volume is much louder and I don't need to wind the mainspring that much. Previously the tone arm was producing too much drag on the, bringing the turntable to a stop. I had too wind it way up to get a sound out of the machine.

Really, is that it? The reproducer can be set in two positions?

(A couple of minutes later.) The tone arm has stamped on it Pat Pending. What I did--i.e. remove that little set screw--worked but seems a little clumsy. Let me investigate this a bit more. There may be some sort of spring=loaded action here.

[jboger]

Managed to buy a beat-up old Caswell that had the same motor. I was able to repair the original motor by replacing that broken star-shaped spring and swapping a few other parts. Actually a pretty good motor; runs quietly. From the broken Caswell I was also able to restore the needle cup and clean up a few other things. Runs very nicely and has good volume. Not a bad machine. Although a bit tattered, I prefer to think of it as well loved.

[De Soto Frank]

The embossed decoration on the record-holder flap is a nice detail.

Congratulations on getting it going again...

It may not have great monetary value, but it's nice to see something "different" ...


That motor looks like it might be a Heinemann ? ( going by the casting details on the bottom motor-plate ).


Thanks for sharing !

[jboger]

I'll take your word that it's a Heinemann motor. I do have to say now that I have it working properly, it's not a bad motor. And the speed control works really well. I took another part from the trashed Caswell, which actually seems to be a better model, to fix the record holder in place without the rubber band. Eventually I will remove some rust from the clasps and give it a final cosmetic going over. Here are two more photos, to give a sort of before-and-after look-see--I mean with respect to the photos posted earlier.