Hardened grease in mainsprings

[ewok]

I've read somewhere that heat can soften hardened grease.
Can it also do the trick to place the whole spring barrel under sunlight for several hours?

[Retrograde]

...place the whole spring barrel under sunlight for several hours?

in January?

[Phono48]

I've read somewhere that heat can soften hardened grease.
Can it also do the trick to place the whole spring barrel under sunlight for several hours?

All that will do is to soften the grease until it cools down again, at which point your'e back where you started.
Sorry, but there really is only one way to cure this problem, and that is to remove the spring, clean it, and replace with fresh grease. Introducing any thinning agent whilst the spring is in situ will result in an oily mess dripping out of the centre of the drum, and into the cabinet, and then you really have problems!

Barry

[Henry]

I've read somewhere that heat can soften hardened grease.
Can it also do the trick to place the whole spring barrel under sunlight for several hours?

All that will do is to soften the grease until it cools down again, at which point your'e back where you started.
Sorry, but there really is only one way to cure this problem, and that is to remove the spring, clean it, and replace with fresh grease. Introducing any thinning agent whilst the spring is in situ will result in an oily mess dripping out of the centre of the drum, and into the cabinet, and then you really have problems!

Barry

OTOH, I had the same drip problem on my XI after its two-spring motor had been CLA'd professionally (meaning, I paid somebody else to do it). They were a bit over-enthusiastic with the new lube, which was reddish in appearance and resembled what is commonly known as "axle grease"---not sure what it really was. And how, you may well ask, did I know what it looked like? You guessed it: the excess dripped out of the canisters and down onto the horn inside the cabinet. I went at it with paper towels, lifting the motor board every few days and wiping up the residue from the horn and the canisters. After quite a few of these exercises, it finally stopped leaving traces. Ironically, the motor works about the same as before: mostly quiet and smooth, with an occasional very mild and unobtrusive thump. There is also a consistent thump at the nineteenth turn of the crank on wind-up from full slack. I can live with it.

I should add that there was already some dark staining on the horn when I got the machine. I believe this to be graphite/vaseline from the original factory lube.

[kirtley2012]

what i have been told in the past is put the spring barrel in a oven on a low temerature with a drip pan underneath the barrel then let the grease turn to iquid and trickle out, i never got around do doing this, i just used a heat gun on one of my spring barrels and it loosened it alot!

[ewok]

This is what I've read from another on-line antique phonograph forum. I tried once in August (placing the spring barrel under direct sunlight IN TEXAS for an afternoon and winding/unwinding the springs several times right after that) and it did make improvement on the performance. However, in this case, the springs were not bad to begin with.

what i have been told in the past is put the spring barrel in a oven on a low temerature with a drip pan underneath the barrel then let the grease turn to iquid and trickle out, i never got around do doing this, i just used a heat gun on one of my spring barrels and it loosened it alot!