Damned Pot Metal

[Green Mountain Bill]

Hello Phonograph Enthusiats:

I am restoring a Victor VE-9-40E and one problem I have is a broken potmetal sidearm that holds the electric reproducer. I have carefully repaired it twice, once with JB weld and the second time with superglue gel. Since it ks broken at its narrowest diameter (of course) the weight of the heavy electrical reproducer always ends up rebreaking it at the same spot. I even tried JB WELDing in length of coathanger wire the length of the arm in the hollow hook-up wire trench on its back but the repaired crack broke again leaving the reproducer hanging by the coathanger wire. So.................. I left a post entitled "WTB: side arm for electric reproducer-VE-9-40E, 8-60E,Borgia" (with pictures) in the "Yankee Trader" section of TTMF but have not yet heard from anyone.

I must also say that the arm shows the usual surface cracks of deteriorating potmetal so I coated it with superglue to penetrate the cracks in hopes of strengthening the arm.

I believe that earlier models with this same design may have arms made out of cast brass instead of potmetal but I don't know if these brass arms are exactly the same size as the one on my 9-40E

Have any of you faced this same problem? What should I do to repair the arm or find a replacement? Has anyone reproduced this arm?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

Best Regards, Green Mountain Bill in Vermont,
were deepest winter is slowly changing to the season of "the Maple sap is a-running Pa"

[gramophone78]

Not sure is this will help. However, I think there are at least two threads in our "Tech & Tips" section that delves into "pot metal" fixes and restoration.
Hope it helps.

[estott]

JBWeld has its virtues as a filler, but I've never found it to work well cementing a break that needs to take stress. It won't penetrate into the metal so the bond is weak.

[kirtley2012]

I would reccomend taking the old part to someone with a cnc machine or someone who works with metal and ask them if they can make a new part from brass, that way it will never break again!

[edisonrestorer64]

Bill wise advide contact George Vollema @ Great Lakes Antique Phonograph
he may have what you need, or try Ron Stiko also

Hope This helps