Help needed for Auxetophone

[estott]

I.M.O. It surprises me that a museum like this wouldn't have someone around that could fix the machine unless the problem is more complicated and involves the compressor aspect of the mechanism. Volunteers and/or staff should at least know how to replace a spring. If this museum was near me, I would help out on anything they needed no matter how complicated or not. To let it sit there for a couple of years seems crazy. I bet if the museum just reached out, they would get all the help they ever wanted.

It would surprise me too under most circumstances, but like most smaller museums I'd bet they have a slim budget with most of the staff doing curatorial and display work. In addition a lot of museums will avoid repairs because they can be costly and restoration because someone will always scream "You did it wrong and you ruined it!"

I work in a military museum & we often have volunteers offering to work in our gun vault.

[alang]

This is a very small local museum and they are working with an all volunteer staff that shrunk from last year 12 to now only 5 volunteers. As I understand, the repair person from southern Delaware they worked with in the past has since retired or passed. I also would not want some local handyman without knowledge of correct phone parts and repair techniques "fix" historic machines in a museum like this.

As estott said, these small museums are often reluctant to trust someone with repairs for the above reason. The volunteers are eager to get the machine fixed, so they can demonstrate it again, but that's not their decision. The museum is owned by the state of Delaware and the state curator has to allow a repair.

I have offered to repair it for free and hope they will accept. They have an address list with the usual repair shops, but don't have money to pay. So the decision so far has been to rather have it broken, but not messed up...

Andreas

[Andersun]

The museum is owned by the state of Delaware

This explains everything!

Andreas, I hope they let you take a look at it.

Steve

[alang]

OK, it is done. The Victor Auxetophone with SN 548 in the Johnson Victrola Museum in Dover, DE is working again like a charm. They allowed me to remove the motor and take it home for repair.

It turned out that there was no broken spring, but one spring disconnected from the shaft. This had probably lead to a sudden release of the power and sheared off the tapered pin that connects the gears to the center shaft. I still removed all 3 springs, cleaned and re-greased them to make sure that there was nothing wrong with them. The 3 spring motor has a design I had not seen before. The double spring barrel is open on both sides with a wall in the middle, so both springs are installed in the same direction (clockwise seen from outer end). Then the single barrel has its opening facing the double barrel, so that spring also goes in clockwise. Because of the arrangement of the barrels this puts them in proper alternating directions.

Today I installed the motor and for the first time in 2 years the JVM Auxetophone was playing again. I was blown away by the volume and fullness of the sound. This machine was definitely loud enough for dance halls etc. Only thing I found strange was that it seems that the air hose somewhat constricts the movement of the tonearm, so I think record wear must be quite high.

Here are a few pictures:

[gramophone78]

Great pics. Too bad it no longer has it's original blower... . I think to date only two still do??.

[dutchman]

[quote="alang"]OK, it is done. The Victor Auxetophone with SN 548 in the Johnson Victrola Museum in Dover, DE is working again like a charm. They allowed me to remove the motor and take it home for repair.

Your the man!

[Wolfe]

You showed those turkeys how get it done. Good job.

[TinfoilPhono]

That's wonderful! Good for you. And for the JVM. I'm delighted.

It takes some tweaking to adjust the angle of the air tube and the flexible connecting tube in order to get free movement of the tone arm, but it can be done so that there is no undue pressure. Of course, you are still dealing with a much heavier reproducer than a standard Exhibition so some additional wear is inevitable. Still, these are astonishing machines so I'm happy to know that people can once again experience it. Big thumbs up.