Columbia Grafonola Tabletop Barn Find and info on its restoration

[Dischoard]

How are your videographer skills? It would be great to see this in action. This whole thing has been a lot of fun to follow. Kudos!

[Dischoard]

I am also curious as to why no needle cups on these machines.

I don't know if this means anything, but I've got a matching cabinet with mine and the needle cup is attached to the inside of the door. Perhaps an incentive for buying both pieces?

[Herderz]

Thanks Dischoard, I have very good computer skills to be able to do video and I would commit the time to it on a better machine that is more common. Like a external horn machine. But I have yet been able to acquire one to restore, most have already been worked on.

[Herderz]

So this is what I have done since my last post. The machine was missing the bottom so I make a new one out of ⅛" wooden panel. Cut to size and I used walnut stain to match the old wooden bottom.

I used 400 grit to prep the bottom edge of the lid, then put 4 coats of shellac to show the grain. The inside of the lid looked great and I just put some bees wax to it and polished.

Next the machine was missing the lid prop lever. I have a nickel plated rod from a Saal motor that controlled the governor that I thought would work.

I needed to cut it to length and determine the angle for the lid. I measured the angle of the lid base on my Edison and a off-brand machine. Both came in at 50 degrees.
I set the lid at 50 and marked the lever to cut my notch.

I don't know if it is anywhere close to OEM spec but it works beautifully.

With the lid prop lever installed I mounted the rebuilt tone arm to the machine. Looks good and now I will move on to the last stage of the restoration. The motor.

[Inigo]

Amazing work, hurrah!

[Herderz]

Now for the motor. It is hard to tell what I have here but it did spin up and play in this condition.

I carefully broke the motor down always looking at gear mesh and back lash to understand critical adjustments that I would need to understand for reassembly. This thing was pretty mucked up. I first cleaned each piece with kerosene just to get to were I could see what I had. Then I cleaned each part with acetone to remove all the crud from every edge and gear tooth. Took a little bit using tooth pick and tooth brushes to get it all off. What I found was a very impressive design for this motor. I think far superior to the Edison or Victor that I have rebuilt. I like the brass gears running on steel pinions. Much like the best clock movements I have worked with.

I think I will give more detail on how I will set this motor up on reassembly.

[dzavracky]

My Columbia nonpareil has this motor. When properly adjusted it’s almost silent and runs for a long time. Good luck with it!

Great job on this machine my only comment would be… I think those green pieces of felt are supposed to go onto the lid… that way you don’t see them when the lid is open.

David

[Herderz]

I think it is best to start at the end of the power train and work backwards to the spring drive. Starting at the main spindle. I polished the pivot points at the end of the spindle and the upper bushing point that goes through the main plate. In very good shape with no major wear or burrs I used a leather lap stick to polish these bushing ride points on the shaft train.

Inspection of the drive gear and the governor gear I found that the governor gear that is pressed on the hub with knurls has worked loose. You can see how the gear can cock under a load.

I staked the gear back down using my clock stacking anvil to secure the gear back to where it is suppose to be.

[Herderz]

Thanks dzavracky, as far as the pads for the lid this machine had the pads on the body to cover up the upper screw holes for the corner columns.

[Curt A]

Nice job... it looks like it just left the factory.