Update and questions on the Oxford BZ Hornless

[VanEpsFan1914]

Well, Forum pals, thanks much for identifying the tiny phonographs I posted a while ago as two Oxford BZ models.

I've been restoring them. The old ragged one has been knocked apart (I saved the columns, the moulding, and the surviving fragments of hardware for other restorers) and the tonearm went onto the better one. I rebuilt the motor in the better one. Soon the fiber gear will need to be changed. It runs, but sputters, and the motor is not exactly "self-starting."

The tonearm is the hard part.

I am trying to get the camera going to post some pictures. Battery's dead, though. Anyway, the tonearm was the early drawn-brass type (cool!) and the reproducer was potmetal. It's very plain, no engine turning or whatever on the back behind the diaphragm. I think it is swollen as the spring-steel ring no longer fits the threads.

I was removing it from the tonearm when the whole elbow & reproducer, still very much stuck together, sprang off the arm where the elbow had been sweated in with solder. Now the arm has a hairline crack running down the top of it and the reproducer is still stuck on the elbow.

Should I source another tonearm at this point? One that isn't swelled-up junk? Or should I solder it back together? You guys decide.


Anyway, the Oxford is going to be a cool phonograph, but I'm not there yet with the rebuild.