Close Up of A Stylus

[ambrola]

Was looking at this K reproducer because it didn't have any volume on the 4 minute side. It sure enough had a flat spot on it. I snapped a picture of it before I attempt to turn it off the flat spot. It's a lot easier to do on the 2 minute stylus.

[phonojim]

Nice photos and good luck with rotating that 4 min sapphire. I've done a bunch of them and lost a couple in the process, resulting in a quick call to Ron Sitko and a check going out in the mail. Once I actually found a four min. sapphire that had snapped out of the tweezers and landed on the floor among the other debris under the bench - but only once. Is the two minute stylus good or is it just reflections I see? Also, have you changed the gaskets in your K? I assume you have or will - hard/leaky gaskets can cause low volume and poor quality too.

Jim

[Schlick]

I like your close-up pictures!

But how does one turn the sapphire? Soldering iron? I thought it looked like it's brazed in with brass?

http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... =2&t=18994
-Michael

[phonojim]

The stylus is held into the bar with shellac. You must heat the bar until the shellac melts then grasp the stylus and rotate it. The shellac will re-harden when it cools. I usually add a tiny amount of thinned shellac to fill in any voids that may form. If I have the stylus completely out of the bar I use a thick shellac which I mix using shellac flakes and denatured alcohol. If you accidentally get a little bit of shellac on the playing surface of the stylus, you can carefully remove it with denatured alcohol on a cotton swab. The medical type swabs with the wooden sticks are the best to use because they are much more tightly wrapped which gives you better control. I've been using this method for many years and have not had a stylus come loose or fall out. I understand Ron Sitko uses hot glue to hold his styli in bars.
I will try to post more later about the tools I use, including pictures of them.

Jim

[ambrola]

I've had them fly across the room when they come all the way out. I do the same as Jim, just lay the soldering tip on it until it gets loose, then turn it. I don't know why but the 2 minute stylus is much easier to turn. But it is a good way to save 40.00 and it will last another 100 years.

[FellowCollector]

Below are a few Edison stylus pictures that I snapped, hand-held (no fancy tripod for me!) with one of my simple pocket Olympus cameras (camera cost: $150 at a Target Store). I'm very picky about my cameras: they must be relatively inexpensive, easily pocketed, and most importantly, have excellent macro options. The little Olympus that took these pics met all of these objectives way back in 2010! Funny thing is I hardly use it opting instead to use my other simple Canon pocket camera purchased back in 2000!

Anyway, I emailed these pictures to Steve Medved back in the summer of 2014 in an effort to try to share with him the condition of the styli in one of my Edison Model S reproducers that I was concerned about.

Neither of us could tell by these pictures whether the 4 minute stylus had a flat spot on it as it could have been a lighting / shadowing issue. The 2 minute stylus appeared to both of us to be fine. Naturally, the best way to examine the condition of a stylus is under much higher magnification than my little Olympus camera can provide. But these pictures helped me understand what my 4 minute stylus looked like as I'd never tried snapping pics of the Edison 4 minute stylus.

Doug

[ambrola]

Below are a few Edison stylus pictures that I snapped, hand-held (no fancy tripod for me!) with one of my simple pocket Olympus cameras (camera cost: $150 at a Target Store). I'm very picky about my cameras: they must be relatively inexpensive, easily pocketed, and most importantly, have excellent macro options. The little Olympus that took these pics met all of these objectives way back in 2010! Funny thing is I hardly use it opting instead to use my other simple Canon pocket camera purchased back in 2000!

Anyway, I emailed these pictures to Steve Medved back in the summer of 2014 in an effort to try to share with him the condition of the styli in one of my Edison Model S reproducers that I was concerned about.

Neither of us could tell by these pictures whether the 4 minute stylus had a flat spot on it as it could have been a lighting / shadowing issue. The 2 minute stylus appeared to both of us to be fine. Naturally, the best way to examine the condition of a stylus is under much higher magnification than my little Olympus camera can provide. But these pictures helped me understand what my 4 minute stylus looked like as I'd never tried snapping pics of the Edison 4 minute stylus.

Doug

Doug,
You can clearly see the flat spot on the 4 minute stylus if you click on the picture. It will blow up 2 times.

[FellowCollector]

Ronnie, My comments were referring to the picture(s) that I provided of my 4 minute stylus on my model S reproducer - not your 4 minute stylus. Yours looks like it has been cleaved or has a flat spot according to the pics you provided. My pictures don't clearly reveal whether there is a flat spot or it is simply lighting. My 4 minute stylus was playing OK but not as nicely as my other model S reproducers so that is why I sought Steve's expert opinion as best I could with those pictures. I ended up doing nothing with the reproducer. I simply wanted to share my story with pictures as well since it was sort of similar to yours.

Doug

[phonojim]

Here are pictures of a couple of tools I use to heat the stylus bars for rotating or removing styli.

The first two are of a professional jeweler's and watchmaker's tool. It was designed for heating parts to set jewels with shellac. The part is clamped in as shown in the second picture and heat is applied to the tail with a small torch, alcohol lamp, soldering iron, etc. until the shellac softens. I was told that these tools are no longer made. I got lucky and found mine at an antique show (cheap).
The bottom picture shows something I made before I found the jeweler's tool. It is made to attach to a Weller soldering gun in place of the regular tip. It consists of 3 turns of #14 solid wire wrapped around the brass and secured in place with the screw. The other end is bent over and drilled and tapped for the clamping screw. The tail of the needle bar is simply slid into the slot and clamped in place. Primitive, but it works. Both of these heat up quickly, so be be careful not to apply too much heat and burn the shellac. If you do that, you will have to remove the sapphire, clean everything and re insert it.

If I have a broken tip to replace, I order the sapphire already installed in the bar from Ron Sitko. It only costs a very few dollars more and saves me from tearing the last of my hair out.

[ambrola]

I order my stylus from Ron also. That's some nice tools you have there Doug. Years ago I was looking for an old brass head hammer. It took me a long time searching flea markets and antique shops before I finally found one the correct size. They are worth their weight in gold if you are doing any repairs to these old phonographs.