Turntable dust ring

[edisonclassm]

This is one of those parts projects that will have to be undertaken altruistically by someone as the costs and quantities involved will not net any kind of profit. Jerry Van offered a possible company who could probably do this as these parts were spun like horn bells out of brass. Someone will have to lay out many hundreds of dollars maybe a thousand or two to get this project off the ground for molds and production costs without any guarantee of breaking even. Once the parts are produced then you have to deal with a bunch of parsimonious collectors as proven by doublemike unwilling to spend much for the part once available. Anyone willing to step up to the plate?

[JerryVan]

The one listed on ebay has a notch for the speed regulator, so it is not right for every machine. I have a BI and a BII that both have their dust rings. Both rings are steel, the BI ring is nickel plated and the BII ring is gold plated with a notch for the speed control. They have 4 tabs soldered to the ring for attachment, (actually my BI only has 2 left, but it works), so any reproduction or replacement would most likely require 4 mew holes in the motor board since it is unlikely that the ring would match up to the existing holes correctly. The ring currently on my BI replaced a ring that had no plating left and the tabs had been reapplied with what looks like JB Weld epoxy. I put a clear coat over the outside to prevent oxidation and it looked pretty good, (no one sees the tabs). I was lucky enough to find a replacement ring that still retains quite a bit of the nickel and had 2 tabs remaining for attachment, so the other ring is sitting in a draw. I may braze the tabs back on and have it plated some day, but not today.

It does dress up the machine nicely. Producing them out of brass requires a large sheet of brass, whether you are spinning or drawing them, so you would want to have a purpose for the wasted material. I had been considering rolling them and soldering the seam instead, (like a bicycle wheel), but for the limited number, the time investment doesn't seem worth the effort. I don't mind when a machine becomes a personal labor of love, but this would be more of a business venture and between tooling, brazing, material cost and plating, I can't see how someone could produced them without losing money on each one.

For a very short and expensive run, the part could be machined from large tubing. It is a hard part to find, so maybe the cost of producing them could yield a profit.

I believe the ones on my machines have a well polished, but still visible from the backside, seam. FWIW. Then there are the cast aluminum ones for BD & BJ model Columbias. (Maybe AR & AY too?)

[Django]

I checked one of mine when I got home and it turns out that at least my spare ring, the one with no nickel left, is a soldered hoop like a bicycle wheel. Tooling would not be that bad. No material waste either. It's a nice, interlocking joint. The originals may have been rolled and formed into a hoop in a single operation, two at a time, brazed, and then split down the center to make two. Or they could have been split as the hoop was being formed. Either way, they did a nice job. Before cnc equipment, you had to be clever.

[Django]

You have to look closely to see the solder joint in the center of the photo above.

[Jerry B.]

If you've got the original veneer on the top of your cabinet and you find no holes when you remove the turntable, your machine never had a dust ring.

Jerry Blais

[doublemike]

Sold at $212,50

[Lucius1958]

We shall most likely never know when Columbia dropped the dust ring.

My BI has no sign of one, and has the later 'profile' decal, but still has the 'Analyzing' reproducer.

Bill