Columbia 112a help urgently needed

[Vintage Rosie]

Hello all, have been playing my Columbia 112A with it's new soundbox (lovely!) but it has just started to not want to play anything at all, no matter what!! When I place the soundbox on the record the sound is strange, intermittent and the arm is kind of driven off the record, what is going on please and can my hubby fix it (he is a plumber by trade so may have some technical skills hahaha!) the little felt stay had risen up the other day and we took it off in the end as hubby couldn't seem to force it back on (big girl) I really need two machines for this coming weekend so I am panicking a bit lol!!

[soundgen]

Have you put the needle in upside down ? Might sound silly but I know it has been done before

[Vintage Rosie]

We have discovered in the last ten minutes that it is something to do with the horn and the fact that it is very loose at the tone arm end, there is a nut missing from the lid latch and the whole area is flapping about like a trout on a river bank! So we will try and find a nut and give it a go, found the washer in the horn so we're half way there!!

[epigramophone]

Be very careful when working on the tonearm/horn assembly, which on Columbia portables of this period is vulnerable to metal fatigue.

[Phono48]

Plus, the whole of the internal horn that is attached to the arm is pot metal, and can easily shatter at the other end, where it swivels on a pin to let the arm rise and fall. Start wiggling the arm around too much, and you'll end up with a shattered internal horn. I've had to scrap a 112A and a 202 in the past because of this. Columbia must have been aware of the danger even then, as they fitted that little right angled bracket to the right of the arm base, to stop the arm moving when in it's lowered position

Barry

[Vintage Rosie]

Thanks for your replies guys, I have been so busy and have only just tried out our solution, which is to chock the underneath of the horn up when it's in the open position, and remove the two bits of wood to close it for transportation, this has solved the problem for now and I am going to have to find a replacement nut and sort out the lid stay next week, but at least I can use it tomorrow, Barry thanks for enlightening us as to the L shaped bracket, we wondered what it was for!