The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Clearly there does not appear to be any enjoyable moments associated playing with springs Cheers


Bill K

dutchman wrote:Clearly there does not appear to be any enjoyable moments associated playing with springs Cheers


Bill K

It is nasty work at best, and potentially dangerous. You have to be "on your toes" if you want to keep them! The springs that I most hate to change are the ones that are stacked two inside one barrel - getting the lower spring out of the barrel seems hopeless the first time you try it, but knowing it could be done encouraged me to keep at it until I succeeded. A few jobs like that make you appreciate the smaller springs!

yes make sure you mark the directions one goes clock wise the other counter clock wise this is extremely important. I know the Victor Victrola have them going this way maybe yours does also.

Work gloves are a good idea, and something to "catch" the spring if you lose control of it. I've done my Edison 2 minute, a Victrola table top (2 springs in 1 barrel) and the current Pathé project I'm working on.

Reading all the warnings in the write-ups had me concerned the first time (the Edison) so I used the "loosen it up and throw the spring barrel in a trash can approach". This worked.

For Victrola I placed the barrel in a pipe vice (which is meant to hold similarly shaped objects) and covered it with towel.

For the Pathé (2 spring Heineman motor), I just did it on the couch while watching TV. I kept a towel around it in case the spring rapidly uncoiled but it never did (pretty easy). Getting the new springs in will likely be a little (a lot, actually) more complicated...

In short, if you're "handy" and have a good grasp on safely working with devices under load then it's not so tough. If you can't change the oil in your car and need to call AAA to have a flat tire changed, then you might want to send the motor out for someone else to swap the springs