The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Django wrote: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.