My New RCA Victor Portable

[alang]

I've used black rubber grommets from the plumbing aisle. You can put a screw or rivet through it and nobody would ever know

Andreas

[Lah Ca]

At least I would add flat adhesive rubber feet, which you could adapt by careful cutting or grinding to achieve an horizontal level. The black rubber adhered on top of the existing feet would preserve them while serving the comfort of the user. I say rubber instead of felt, because the felt feet tend to slide when you wind the machine.
You could also glue cork slices to the old feet, and paint them in black. Cork also adheres to the table and the machine doesn't slide. I once made four cork feet for my hmv127, copying the original shape of the rubber ones, kind of a demi-sphere with a thick long tail which enters into the hole in the wooden leg. Seems a mushroom upside down. They fit marvelously. I made them out of good hard dense wine bottles corks.

Thanks for the interesting suggestion.

I've used black rubber grommets from the plumbing aisle. You can put a screw or rivet through it and nobody would ever know

Andreas

I'd know.

Screws would be complicated because of the horn. I had also thought about the plumbing aisle or my plumbing drawer in the garage. Thanks.

[Lah Ca]

Summary

What do I think about this machine?

It is decidedly odd. I suspect that the paint-stencilled number on the motorboard is date code for 1941 and that the machine is an official/legitimate Canadian RCA Victor Franken-Phone, made from whatever parts they had on-hand together with whatever they could source during Canadian wartime materials shortages. It does not feel like a blueprint designed unit, where everything is carefully thought out. It feels like an assemblage of parts that more or less work together. It is not all that carefully made.

One of the screws securing the motorboard to the case does not catch the wooden support for the motorboard, but then there is no way it could without moving the position of the screw closer to the edge of the case and out of cosmetic alignment with the other screws or without making the support wider. Oh but then the support cannot be made wider or it would be impossible to get the horn in and out of the case.

The horn mouth is not the same shape as the aperture at the back of the motorboard for it. There is a sizable gap which opens into the case near the base of the tonearm. Two things that do not belong together?

The metal sleeve into the case for the crank is a flat piece of metal curled into a tube. It is press-fit into the case which compresses the split tube slightly so that the tube acts like a spring holding itself in place. It is then secured by one of the screws that secure the motorboard to the case, the screw acting as a set-screw for the tube. So far so good. But the horn is attached to the motorboard with a wood screw and a plywood nut near the horn mount and three screws in the horn’s flange which go into the motorboard at the base of the tone arm, sealing the horn flange against a felt gasket attached to the motorboard. You cannot get the motorboard/horn unit in or out of the case with the crank sleeve in place. To get the motorboard with attached horn into the case, you need to tip the motorboard up on its left side with right edge lined up with the right side of the the case and then press/force/squeeze the horn down past the supports for the motorboard on the left. And then there is bit of minor force required to get the motorboard seated inside the edges of the case and down on its support. Then and only then can you press-fit the crank sleeve into place. So the machine had to be assembled in this manner with no thought given to how anyone would get it apart for service. I suspect that this why the horn flange was not attached to the motorboard in my unit; someone wanted to look inside and just ripped the flange loose from the motor board in frustration. With the flange loose and the one screw near the horn mouth removed, the motorboard comes out easily. It is not easy to remove the crank sleeve. I had to tap it out with a small hammer. To get my machine apart again, I am going to have to make a tool with a hook at the end to try and extract the sleeve.

Edit: The plywood used for the motorboard is too thin for weight of the motor it supports, even though the horn supports the motorboard in some places. The motorboard sags a little.

The tonearm is not great. Even after lubrication and repeated swinging back and forth to its extremes, its travel is rough. The arc it tracks across a record is not great, nowhere near optimal. The geometry of its placement is wrong. Was it intended for a different machine? There is almost no vertical pivot in the arm which, while good for a portable where you don’t want the arm rocking around in transport, is also problematic in a couple of ways. It makes it tricky getting the tone arm on and off a record without scratching it – great care is needed. And it makes the needle-rake adjustment of the soundbox/reproducer absolutely critical – too steep and there is too much drag and the motor stalls – not steep enough and the tonearm won’t track the record. And not all records are the same, but I think I have found a common sweet spot. It is not a friendly machine for an inexperienced user or one without mechanical sense/experience.

Further Edit: Changing needles is really, really, really awkward.

The General Industries single spring Junior motor is adequate for pretty much all 10” disks made before the early/mid 1940s. It plays them effortlessly. It struggles with electrically recorded 12” disks from the 1940s onward. It will not play badly worn 1950s or 60s records – too much drag and they stall immediately. This might be improved if I actually disassembled the motor entirely and fully cleaned and re-lubricated it and cleaned and repacked the spring. I did not do this, however. I showed the motor to my mechanic who is interested in old machines. He examined the grease in the motor and gave me a small vial of some lubricant and said that I should try rejuvenating the grease with it first. It that did not work adequately, then I should take it all apart. Old things taken apart and put back together sometimes don’t work as expected after reassembly. Minimal intervention first. So I may, yet, have the machine apart again.

Finally, it’s not all bad. What is great about the machine is the horn and the reproducer. The horn is really loud and it sounds great. The reproducer has a much wider frequency range than the one on my Aeolian Vocalian machine, which was made at least twenty years earlier. With an appropriate 10” record the machine sounds superb.

[Liama138]

I just bought the twin of this except it’s a Birch. The only difference I can see outright is that the horn and the motor board match up better.
I see what you mean about the crank shaft tube. I’m having a hell of a hard time getting the motor board out with that in place. I’ll probably end up having to remove the motor to get the board off. I don’t see a way around that currently.

[Lah Ca]

I just bought the twin of this except it’s a Birch. The only difference I can see outright is that the horn and the motor board match up better.
I see what you mean about the crank shaft tube. I’m having a hell of a hard time getting the motor board out with that in place. I’ll probably end up having to remove the motor to get the board off. I don’t see a way around that currently.

Cool. There are many marked resemblances. Enjoy.

I was thinking of using a long screw through a piece of wood with a butterfly nut on the end and then using something like a gear puller to extract the crank tube the next time I have to take it out. I have no idea if this will actually work until I try it though.

[Phono48]

There is almost no vertical pivot in the arm which, while good for a portable where you don’t want the arm rocking around in transport, is also problematic in a couple of ways. It makes it tricky getting the tone arm on and off a record without scratching it – great care is needed.

It might just be me, but I don't understand this quote. Surely, at the end of the record you just swing the front part of the arm upwards, so that the needle is pointing upwards, thus negating any chance of scratching the record?

Barry

[Lah Ca]

There is almost no vertical pivot in the arm which, while good for a portable where you don’t want the arm rocking around in transport, is also problematic in a couple of ways. It makes it tricky getting the tone arm on and off a record without scratching it – great care is needed.

It might just be me, but I don't understand this quote. Surely, at the end of the record you just swing the front part of the arm upwards, so that the needle is pointing upwards, thus negating any chance of scratching the record?

Barry

No problem. Yours is both an excellent observation and question.

If you do not understand the quote, it is probably because the arm design itself is a little incomprehensible.

If you look at the pictures of the arm, way above, you will see that there is a stopper/retainer pin that limits the degree to which the forward part of the arm will tilt up. Also, tilt movement of the forward part of the arm is very stiff, even with lubrication. The tolerances here are quite tight. Theoretically, I suppose, stopping the arm at the pin puts the arm in play position. This might be OK if all records were manufactured to the same thicknesses, which of course they were not.

To get some records to play, I often have to spend a bit of time tweaking both the tilt of the forward arm and the needle rake angle. There is a sweet spot for each thinner or thicker record. On either side of this sweet spot, the arm either will not track the record or the motor will stall because of drag. Much of this problem could have been solved with an arm design that allowed more vertical pivot.

So there is an arm which has very limited vertical pivot. The forward part of the arm does not tilt easily, and there is a stopper that prevents tilting it so the needle is facing up (tilting up would be nice for changing needles). On thicker records, this leaves very little clearance to get a needle safely on and off the records.

[OrthoFan]

... The forward part of the arm does not tilt easily, and there is a stopper that prevents tilting it so the needle is facing up (tilting up would be nice for changing needles). On thicker records, this leaves very little clearance to get a needle safely on and off the records.

It sounds like the pot metal is swollen--a common problem with this style of tonearm. The tonearm's "crook" (the front part that tilts forward and backward) should move VERY easily to allow for changing needles, positioning the sound box's needle onto the record, etc.

The way to fix this is to remove the small bolt --

-- and remove the crook. Then, take some 400 grit wet-or-dry sand paper and polish the end of the crook, reinsert it to test, polish it some more, etc... until it moves smoothly, then smear some grease around the end, reinsert it, and tighten the bolt.

If the bolt refuses to budge, do not force it! Doing so could cause the the tonearm to crack apart. If the bolt cannot be removed to access the crook, try spraying some super penetrating lightweight oil into the joint.

HTH,
OrthoFan

[Lah Ca]

... The forward part of the arm does not tilt easily, and there is a stopper that prevents tilting it so the needle is facing up (tilting up would be nice for changing needles). On thicker records, this leaves very little clearance to get a needle safely on and off the records.

It sounds like the pot metal is swollen--a common problem with this style of tonearm. The tonearm's "crook" (the front part that tilts forward and backward) should move VERY easily to allow for changing needles, positioning the sound box's needle onto the record, etc.

The way to fix this is to remove the small bolt --
Capture.JPG
-- and remove the crook. Then, take some 400 grit wet-or-dry sand paper and polish the end of the crook, reinsert it to test, polish it some more, etc... until it moves smoothly, then smear some grease around the end, reinsert it, and tighten the bolt.

HTH,
OrthoFan

Excellent! I will give this a try for sure.

The voice of deep experience always sounds so sweet! Thank you.

[Lah Ca]

... The forward part of the arm does not tilt easily, and there is a stopper that prevents tilting it so the needle is facing up (tilting up would be nice for changing needles). On thicker records, this leaves very little clearance to get a needle safely on and off the records.

It sounds like the pot metal is swollen--a common problem with this style of tonearm. The tonearm's "crook" (the front part that tilts forward and backward) should move VERY easily to allow for changing needles, positioning the sound box's needle onto the record, etc.

The way to fix this is to remove the small bolt --
Capture.JPG
-- and remove the crook. Then, take some 400 grit wet-or-dry sand paper and polish the end of the crook, reinsert it to test, polish it some more, etc... until it moves smoothly, then smear some grease around the end, reinsert it, and tighten the bolt.

HTH,
OrthoFan

Excellent! I will give this a try for sure.

The voice of deep experience always sounds so sweet! Thank you.

I finally got around to looking at this problem.

I have been sidelined for almost six months dealing first with a family medical emergency in another remote city and then dealing with the subsequent death arising from the emergency. And then there has been the dealing with the estate, something moving along but far from being finished. I have never been so tired in all my life.

The good news is that the arm comes apart easily. The set screw was not frozen. The pot metal is not yet self-disintegrating.

The bad news is that the arm is very poorly designed and very poorly fabricated. The rear part of the arm seems OK. The socket to hold the front part of the arm is in good condition and appears to be well-formed and true. The work on the front piece of the arm is very rough, vert shoddy. The hole for the sound tube in the casting is very off-centre. And the part of the front arm piece that fits into the rear of the arm is not true and probably never was. Without the set screw in place to guide its movement it wobbles and binds a bit.

Also there is a flange-like thing in the casting for the front piece of the arm that limits its travel when inserted. It is simply not possible to tilt the front piece of the arm back to make the changing of needles easy. And if this were not so, the channel for the set screw is very short, so movement would be limited anyway.

I have worked on it with various grades of steel wool, removed a lot of roughness, and polished everything till it gleams. I have lubricated it and reassembled it. It works better, but is still not great. The arm is a pig's ear.