The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Keep up the good effort!

Oceangoer1 wrote:Tonearm is put back together. Base has been painted to match the new bracket.

The bronze finish has worn away in lots of places, which is pretty common. I have found that Rub N Buff in Ebony does really well to fill in the worn spots. I have done the first section, and will be doing the gooseneck today.

I love the 4-7. Had one once and let it go. Shame on me.

Where are you getting the replacement brackets? I tried contacting Norm Smith at the old wonderful windups email address on AOL and did not hear back. Where can these be purchased these days? I haven't had to buy one in about 10 years and assumed they were simply no longer being reproduced.

CharliePhono wrote:

Oceangoer1 wrote:Tonearm is put back together. Base has been painted to match the new bracket.

The bronze finish has worn away in lots of places, which is pretty common. I have found that Rub N Buff in Ebony does really well to fill in the worn spots. I have done the first section, and will be doing the gooseneck today.

I love the 4-7. Had one once and let it go. Shame on me.

Where are you getting the replacement brackets? I tried contacting Norm Smith at the old wonderful windups email address on AOL and did not hear back. Where can these be purchased these days? I haven't had to buy one in about 10 years and assumed they were simply no longer being reproduced.

Ebay! JAS Antiques sells them. I believe Ron Sitko also sells them. They seems to be out of stock on Ebay right now, but you could contact them and ask if they have more.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-3-4-Orthophon ... xy2CZTZv~a

Oceangoer1 wrote:

CharliePhono wrote:

Oceangoer1 wrote:Tonearm is put back together. Base has been painted to match the new bracket.

The bronze finish has worn away in lots of places, which is pretty common. I have found that Rub N Buff in Ebony does really well to fill in the worn spots. I have done the first section, and will be doing the gooseneck today.

I love the 4-7. Had one once and let it go. Shame on me.

Where are you getting the replacement brackets? I tried contacting Norm Smith at the old wonderful windups email address on AOL and did not hear back. Where can these be purchased these days? I haven't had to buy one in about 10 years and assumed they were simply no longer being reproduced.

Ebay! JAS Antiques sells them. I believe Ron Sitko also sells them. They seems to be out of stock on Ebay right now, but you could contact them and ask if they have more.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-3-4-Orthophon ... xy2CZTZv~a

Thank you much! Never even heard of JAS until now. Good to know, as I think I'm going to be needing one soon. Have never tried Ron Sitko. His only contact is by phone, I believe(?); never seen an email address for him.

You can contact JAS directly on their website. They offer more items than they list on eBay.

http://www.jasantiques.com/

I've never heard of "Rub N Buff" - I'll have to give it a try on one of my worn tonearms

briankeith wrote:I've never heard of "Rub N Buff" - I'll have to give it a try on one of my worn tonearms

I have used it to touch up worn nickel and gold plating: as long as the metal itself is not often handled, it's a pretty good substitute for plating.

Bill

The gun metal finish on those parts was originally a chemical oxidizing process. You can do your own chemical oxidizing to duplicate exactly what was original:

From a stained glass outlet, get an 8 oz bottle of Novacan Black Patina. It is an oxidizing process chemical for lead, but it works great on all metals. Dilute it about 10 to 20% chemical with water, depending on how fast you want it to work, and how dark you want the finish to be. There is more than enough in a container to do experimenting with. It is a permanent finish which wears well, and it works great on iron, brass, copper, aluminum, lead, zinc, nickel and other metals. Some metals don't get as dark, but they will still stain (oxidize).