Black / Shellac Dust On Needle After Playing, Tried Everything

[Orchorsol]

(Duplicate post deleted)

[Orchorsol]

Do you have any tips to rule out a mechanical problem from the gramophone / soundbox?

Many of the tips on the BCN website for getting the best from thorn needles are equally 'best practice' when using steel needles.

See the 'Using BCNs' and 'FAQs' tabs along the top of the home page: https://www.burmesecolourneedles.com/

[pianolist]

A friend of mine who is in the antique phonograph business and also sells needles got a bad batch of many thousand from one of his suppliers. If you looked at the tip under magnification, they hadn’t been formed cleanly and had a little “hook” on the end. Look at the tip of the needles you have bought.

[Hoodoo]

As pianolist says, the best way to know if the needles are the problem is to look at them through a magnifier. I use a 10x power lens, but a 30x, as LahCa recommends, would be even better.
Regarding bamboo needles, I don’t know how much difference a hardener would make. Bamboo is quite dense and the hardener would probably not penetrate the fibres unless the needles were placed in some sort of pressurized container with the hardening solution for a while. I did try soaking a few of my bamboo needles in Minwax wood hardener when I first started making them, but it didn’t seem to make any difference to how long a tip lasted.
I don’t have a cutter for the needles; I just use a sheet of sandpaper on a flat surface and push the needle across it, while holding it at an appropriate angle, a tip I got from Alex Kirtley’s Youtube channel.
For thorn needles I grip them in a pin vise and run them along sandpaper while rotating the pin vise in my fingers. Works a treat.

[Inigo]

I'm curious about our colleague's problem... Let's hope he'll find the solution and report soon...

[CarlosV]

Do you have any tips to rule out a mechanical problem from the gramophone / soundbox?

I would check the rubber that links the arm with the soundbox. If it is the original one, it is certainly hardened due to ageing. You can easily verify that by poking the rim of the rubber ring with your nail. Replacing it with a new rubber ring will improve the tracking - and the sound. On the soundbox itself, the pivot that makes the needle arm move should be disassembled and lubricated. It also hardens with time and imposes a high drag on the record groove. But your gramophone has limitations, the 102 has alignment issues by design, as Iñigo already mentioned, so it will always impart a high degree of stress on the records, even with a compliant soundbox and a new needle. I would also recommend that you buy Orchorsol's thorn needles, they will highly reduce the wear on most records.

[OddRomanian]

Do you have any tips to rule out a mechanical problem from the gramophone / soundbox?

I would check the rubber that links the arm with the soundbox. If it is the original one, it is certainly hardened due to ageing. You can easily verify that by poking the rim of the rubber ring with your nail. Replacing it with a new rubber ring will improve the tracking - and the sound. On the soundbox itself, the pivot that makes the needle arm move should be disassembled and lubricated. It also hardens with time and imposes a high drag on the record groove. But your gramophone has limitations, the 102 has alignment issues by design, as Iñigo already mentioned, so it will always impart a high degree of stress on the records, even with a compliant soundbox and a new needle. I would also recommend that you buy Orchorsol's thorn needles, they will highly reduce the wear on most records.

Thank you!

The gramophone was serviced before buting, and while the rubber is the original one, It's still decently soft, if I poke It with my nail it leaves a small mark.

Isn't the HMV 102 regarded as a "kinder" machine to records than other machines from the time?

[OddRomanian]

As pianolist says, the best way to know if the needles are the problem is to look at them through a magnifier. I use a 10x power lens, but a 30x, as LahCa recommends, would be even better.
Regarding bamboo needles, I don’t know how much difference a hardener would make. Bamboo is quite dense and the hardener would probably not penetrate the fibres unless the needles were placed in some sort of pressurized container with the hardening solution for a while. I did try soaking a few of my bamboo needles in Minwax wood hardener when I first started making them, but it didn’t seem to make any difference to how long a tip lasted.
I don’t have a cutter for the needles; I just use a sheet of sandpaper on a flat surface and push the needle across it, while holding it at an appropriate angle, a tip I got from Alex Kirtley’s Youtube channel.
For thorn needles I grip them in a pin vise and run them along sandpaper while rotating the pin vise in my fingers. Works a treat.

Thank you for the extensive answer!

[OddRomanian]

A friend of mine who is in the antique phonograph business and also sells needles got a bad batch of many thousand from one of his suppliers. If you looked at the tip under magnification, they hadn’t been formed cleanly and had a little “hook” on the end. Look at the tip of the needles you have bought.

I've heard that too about some worse quality needles but according to most collector's Soundgen's needles have practically a 0% chance of that happening.

Anyway, I'll try to check.

Thank you!

[OddRomanian]

Do you have any tips to rule out a mechanical problem from the gramophone / soundbox?

Many of the tips on the BCN website for getting the best from thorn needles are equally 'best practice' when using steel needles.

See the 'Using BCNs' and 'FAQs' tabs along the top of the home page: https://www.burmesecolourneedles.com/

Thank you!