When Cranks Attack

[Edisone]

I've been miraculously lucky & mostly uninjured. Did the Amberola 50 Thing, but didn't try to stop it, so hands were safe. Did the Edison Disc Broken Mainspring Removal Thing: "What if I just do this?" POW! Entire spring ZOOMED out of the can, just past my face, and ripped a cellar light fixture off its electrical box. That could easily have been an eye removal or death.

Dumbest & most recent injury, and one which I was surprised I'd never had before: Reaching past an upturned soundbox and its needle, ripping a 2" gash across the palm of my hand. Ow.

[wjw]

[quote="chem_jv"]The Victrola 1-1 (Victrolita) is quite a beast. In Victors quest to keep the cost down, they cut a lot of corners. The crank has a spring on it, and when cranking it relaxes to allow the main spring to be tightened. When done, a little of the main spring power is used to tighten up the spring that holds the winding shaft solid. When I was rebuilding mine, this slipped out of it's holder many times and bounced all around. I was never playing a record fortunately. I have repaired it, all be it no better than Victor did in the 1920's. I am very hesitant to use the machine much, as it is built so cheap the problems are likely to return at any point.[quote]


It looks to me like that spring needs a few more coils to be reliable. The arrangement works just fine until you lubricate it.

[Lucius1958]

Yep, and yep.

The phonographic equivalent of "Ford fracture" (when the engine kicked back while you were cranking)...

[phonoman-antique]

A way to avoid injury is to always make sure the crank is latched before
letting go.I know it takes an extra second or two.But when that crank
comes around at 100 miles an hour and hits you you will wished you checked that latch.

[dutchman]

A way to avoid injury is to always make sure the crank is latched before
letting go.I know it takes an extra second or two.But when that crank
comes around at 100 miles an hour and hits you you will wished you checked that latch.

Have no fear - ever since my incident I always take that extra second to make sure the crank is latched.....

[CarGuyZM10]

I think my Brunswick 207 is out to get me. I will think that it is latched when winding, then it will fly back around, strike the top of my hand, then latch.

When I first got it, it had speed control issues. Well, I took the motor out, wound it up, and watched it run, to see if it was any place that needed to be cleaned and relubed (it had sat in an attic for probably 60+ years). As it was running, I guess the governor bearing was loose, because it threw the governor at me! Literally, it went flying! Thankfully it did not hit me, and I was smart enough to not grab a hold of the spring barrel. I just backed away, in case any other pieces flew off.

Please remind me why this machine is my favorite???

[FloridaClay]

Yeh, well did you ever try working on an amberola 30, 50, or, 75, and, have power problems, and, decide, stupid, to remove the mandrel with the motor still wound up?

Yes, blush, a variant. I was absently minded working on a fully wound 50 when I had the clever idea that whatever it was I was trying to do at the time would be easier if I loosened something in the drive train. I was working on the kitchen counter. It spun wildly and turned upside-down, taking assorted chunks out of my quartz counter top as it went. Fortunately I got my hands out of the way in time.

Clay

[Valecnik]

I had my left hand resting over the front of the cabinet on my Amberola 1B, cranking when the lid let loose and came down on my four fingers. I was sure a few of them were broken but in the end, the next morning only black, blue and swelled a bit. Man did it hurt though...

[Uncle Vanya]

Some years ago we were dining when an ungodly racket came from the Library. The motor in the Talk-O-Phone "Clarke" had let loose. In early production of these motors the pin on which pivots the pawl was pit in to a little boss which extended from the stanchion which shpported the spring barrel and winding gear pivots. it seems that there was an imperfectin, a bit of slag, in the boss, which over time had developed in to a crack, which then let loose. Other than making an awful noise, thiugh, there was no other damage to the machine, and I was able to replace the pawl with a later model which fastened to the stanchion itself, rather than to the now broken boss.

[HisMastersVoice]

Ironically, this happened to me just yesterday as I was playing "The Little Old Ford Rambled Right Along" by Billy Murray on my Standard Model D. The crank stopped after a few turns, but hit my hand in the process. Good thing it was a Model D and not a Model T!