Stripped screw in Colibri winding gear.

[JerryVan]

Still seeking to find out what's wrong with the motor. It may be the spring, which has been obviously replaced. Perhaps it's not stiff enough.

I also suspected the regulator gear since the beginning, because of its digged concave shape. I never came across some other gear of such shape, but I also have very little experience with Swiss motors. However, if this was the effect of a terrible worn out, the regulator wormgear would be far off and impossible to engage even with the eccentrics fully rotated. But it seems to engage pretty well instead. Also, the gear seems to be made of a sandwich of brass with a different material in the middle. Can anyone comment on this?

That gear is stripped and will need to be replaced.

[Marco Gilardetti]

EUREKA!!!

I think I'm at a turning point in this repair: I've found an extraneous part hidden inside the mechanism.

While trying to find yet again a suitable working point for the speed regulator, by pure chance in a moment in which the regulator was completely off but the upper plate was still screwed in, I noticed that the whole gear train was stiff and hard to rotate. As the cause didn't seem to be a deformation in the upper plate, I disassembled the motor piece by piece to inspect every single part. At first I thought some pivot was bent but eventually, opening the lower casing below the third gear pivot, I spotted a copper washer cut to size with scissors and placed there for some reason during a previous repair attempt. This hand-made washer is too thick and forces the third gear towards the upper plate, causing much friction.

After having removed the washer and reassembled the upper plate, the gear train revolved freely. I failed to understand why the copper washer was put inside that casing: it seemed wholly unnecessary. Perhaps a clumsy attempt at changing the regulator wormgear's working point without touching the eccentrics.

All right, back to adjusting the regulator!!!

[Marco Gilardetti]

I could assist to a full run of the motor at last! At the end of the spring's charge the gears were completely free of any tension, which means that the spring had fully unwound back to its very last revolution. Which, in turn, is a very good sign of health of a motor. It runs so steadily, quietly and silently that I'm quite confident it will have the strength needed to pull a record.

While reassembling the motor into the case, I had to find to my shame that the motor will fit in *only if* the eccentrics of the regulator are fully centered inside their casings. So next step will be readjusting the regulator yet again!

[Marco Gilardetti]

All right, almost there! I reassembled the motor in its casing and indeed it has power enough to pull a record. It actually works very well! So the regulator gear was not stripped, after all.

But unfortunately, as I figured, the soundbox turned out to be in such a bad shape with such hard gaskets that not only the sound was awful, but the needle also jumped over loud music passages. So I'm rebuilding it. I have to say that these front-mount soundboxes are very uneasy to work with, and that I prefer those with front removable bezel a lot. Also, the old gaskets had pasted to the metal, and removing them has proven to be an exercise in temperance. I had to use a lot of force while in constant fear to scratch or break something. Perhaps for this reason I've found that the suggestion somebody gave me to leave the needle bar in place was not a good one: it was impossible to get rid of the old dried gaskets without removing it.

Putting the new gaskets in place was also not as easy as in Exhibition-type soundboxes. I tried with a tool at first, but later found out that it's easier if you "massage" the rubber all around, "working" it out right and left with as many fingers as possible at the same time. It takes patience and firm hand indeed.

[Mr Grumpy]

Very nice progress.

I hope you're planning on posting a youtube video of it playing when you're done!

[Marco Gilardetti]

Thank you very much, Vince! I also followed one of your repairs recently and, in return, I admired your ability as a craftsman a lot. This repair has been kind of ironic as at the beginning I was 100% sure that the spring was broken, while basically it turned out to be the only working part of this cute little gramophone! Diagnoses can be hard to make, sometimes!

Indeed I have in mind to make a short movie of this pretty little thing in action: setting it up and then playing a record. It's really interesting how it was engineered. Weather forecasts are awful for this weekend so I might really take the chance to do some takes, and then cut and mount them with Movie Maker. How are they usually displayed here? By directly uploading the movie into the database, or is it preferred uploaded on YouTube and then linked within a post?

I also rehauled the back of the soundbox while on it. Oddly enough it doesn't really have an isolator: the same task is performed yet again with strips of gasket tubing. This is very good as you don't need a specific spare part: you can build it up with generic stuff. Unfortunately I think that another gasket is hidden below the bayonet connector, wich is stuck as again the old tubing has horribly pasted to the metal, and I gave up on pulling the part. I was really up to the limit of cracking the metal, which *might* be pot as far as I know, and then... bye bye! A broken Colibri soundbox in your hand, the replacement for which is easily found... on Mars! I'm not really concerned about it, however. The sound quality in such a small machine is limited by geometry, and anyway a new isolator doesn't really turn the cards even in much better machines, usually.

Cutouts of tubing are also used as dampers in the needlebar yoke, you can see one of the two if you closely look at the picture. That was quite unusual as well, at least in my experience.

[Orchorsol]

Beautiful job Marco! I look forward to the video.

[Marco Gilardetti]

Thanks Orchorsol!

Some pictures of the repaired Colibri, while working at the much awaited video.

It seems that the finish of this unit is different by that of gramophone78's. This is painted inside with wrinkled black enamel, a nice finish that was distinctive of many products up to the 50s, but very rarely (never?) seen today. Gramophone78's unit looks like it was painted with glossy black enamel instead. I suppose many finishes and small details were changed over the years.

I also spotted a point where "COLIBRI FABRICATION BELGE" is punched on the top metal plate. It is almost invisible due to the wrinkled finish, and probably I wouldn't have even noticed it if the punching of the letters wasn't so evident when seen from the inside. I hope you can read it: it was very hard to take a picture of it as it gets readable only by reflection.

[gramophone78]

Thanks Orchorsol!

Some pictures of the repaired Colibri, while working at the much awaited video.

It seems that the finish of this unit is different by that of gramophone78's. This is painted inside with wrinkled black enamel, a nice finish that was distinctive of many products up to the 50s, but very rarely (never?) seen today. Gramophone78's unit looks like it was painted with glossy black enamel instead. I suppose many finishes and small details were changed over the years.

I also spotted a point where "COLIBRI FABRICATION BELGE" is punched on the top metal plate. It is almost invisible due to the wrinkled finish, and probably I wouldn't have even noticed it if the punching of the letters wasn't so evident when seen from the inside. I hope you can read it: it was very hard to take a picture of it as it gets readable only by reflection.

Yes Marco, there are many finishes and colors that were available over it's relatively long history. There is even an all nickel plated one. I know of three others.

The little orange needle tin was found inside the box of my black one. I have asked several major needle tin collectors if they have seen this. It is thought to be a sample tin, supplied with the machine. However, this has not been confirmed yet.

[Marco Gilardetti]

Wow, that nickel plated finish is very unusual! I mean not only about Colibris, but for portables in general... Thanks for sharing the pictures!

I am not a "collector" of needle tins in strict terms, although I have some knowledge and have immediately noticed that orange tin you put into the frame, and I thought there must have been some not casual reason for you to do so. I kind of imagined it might have been a Colibri companion. I agree that it is very unusual, although unfortunately I'm unable to confirm that it is a genuine Colibri item.