Bad Gear on an Edison Opera Cylinder Phonograph

[CDBPDX]

Just put together an Edison Opera cylinder phonograph, cranked it up, and it played with a loud thump from the mandrel shaft. Took a while to figure out that the brass gear that engages the governor shaft had cracked which deformed one of its gear teeth. Took about an hour to finally figure it out. Whew!

[Garret]

Yikes! Hope you get it fixed to your liking!

Garret

[MicaMonster]

As I recall, Ron Sitko sells a replacement for this gear. Darned if I can remember if his is fiber or brass!

[Jerry B.]

Ron's is brass. Jerry B.

[CDBPDX]

Here is one of Ron Sitko's newly made gears on an Edison Amberola 1B motor (just the brass part).

[Valecnik]

How do those brass gears from Ron work. Do they solve the problem? Noisy?

[CDBPDX]

How do those brass gears from Ron work. Do they solve the problem? Noisy?

It is a little noisy. The original gear for this had significant damage on each gear tooth and clattered very noisily. This gear is much quieter but still makes a little gear noise. Haven't tried it with the gear cover, might make a difference.

[Phono-Phan]

I had a similar situation on my Opera years ago. But, my gear was the fiber style. The gear had bad teeth and jumped quite a bit. This was about 27 years ago before I knew of a replacement available. In desperation, I used J-B Weld to fix the gear. I cleaned the gear and applied J-B Weld to the bad area. When it was dry, I took off the governor so the shaft would spin freely like a lathe. With one hand I slowly cranked it up a little and used a file to shave down the sides, tapered end, and crown of the gear. I then used a Dremel bit and cut in the teeth. It has been running very smooth since. This is the first phonograph I bought when I moved to Plover, WI in 1992. There is a very interesting story about getting it too but I won't bore everyone with it. The serial number of this Opera is 2452. Were the brass gears before or after this serial number?
Ken Brekke

[Chuck]

Since the repro gear is slightly noisy, I suggest
applying a few drops of STP automotive engine oil
treatment to this gear.

All I can say is try it.

You will be amazed at how those few drops of that
stuff instantly quiets up a noisy gear.

It stays on there quite a while too.
When it starts getting noisy again, just put
a few more drops of STP on there.

This works great on the 2m/4m selector gear on
Edison Standard model D combination machines too.

At one time I kept some STP in an eyedropper bottle
and it sat next to the machine. Now I am no longer
quite that particular about silencing every last
whisper of gear noise. Lately I just douse it
with a liberal application of plain old 20W50
motor oil and that does a pretty fair job too.

[erunltd]

I had a similar situation on my Opera years ago. But, my gear was the fiber style. The gear had bad teeth and jumped quite a bit. This was about 27 years ago before I knew of a replacement available. In desperation, I used J-B Weld to fix the gear. I cleaned the gear and applied J-B Weld to the bad area. When it was dry, I took off the governor so the shaft would spin freely like a lathe. With one hand I slowly cranked it up a little and used a file to shave down the sides, tapered end, and crown of the gear. I then used a Dremel bit and cut in the teeth. It has been running very smooth since. This is the first phonograph I bought when I moved to Plover, WI in 1992. There is a very interesting story about getting it too but I won't bore everyone with it. The serial number of this Opera is 2452. Were the brass gears before or after this serial number?
Ken Brekke

Some great tips here. Never thought about using J.B. Weld. Probably every bit as
strong as the Fibre gear. I may try the J.B. Weld idea just to see if a quiet gear
can be the result. I ordered the brass gear just to have it on hand or use if needed.