The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Lucius1958 wrote:That's a Model B.

First of all, have you cleaned the motor and upper works yet? If not, you should do so. Remove, clean, and reinstall the mainspring as well, lubricating it with a good grade of grease (lithium or molybdenum are good). The rest should be lubricated with fine sewing machine oil.

If it still bogs down, you can adjust the pressure on the half nut, using the screw on its spring mount: alternatively, check the mandrel bearings on either end, and adjust them until it runs properly.

Bill

Seriously, is it really good advice to a novice to remove the mainspring?


Raphael

Raphael wrote:

Lucius1958 wrote:That's a Model B.


Seriously, is it really good advice to a novice to remove the mainspring?


Raphael

LMAO I was thinking the same thing!

Don't do any major work without really getting a familiar hold of how the upper works operates. Oiling bearings, checking belt, end gate adjustment.

It probably is not good to just jump into taking springs out. I though took my first mainspring out when I was 12 years old, and I have then done about 100 springs since then, IT is dangerous though and the greasy spring can get away from you and hurt you and things around you.

K,so we have the wrong tube for the reproducer on the machine,and cant really even test how it plays til we get a 2 minute tube ?

Raphael wrote:

Lucius1958 wrote:That's a Model B.

First of all, have you cleaned the motor and upper works yet? If not, you should do so. Remove, clean, and reinstall the mainspring as well, lubricating it with a good grade of grease (lithium or molybdenum are good). The rest should be lubricated with fine sewing machine oil.

If it still bogs down, you can adjust the pressure on the half nut, using the screw on its spring mount: alternatively, check the mandrel bearings on either end, and adjust them until it runs properly.

Bill

Seriously, is it really good advice to a novice to remove the mainspring?



Raphael

Thanks: I didn't know how much of a novice the OP was.
-Bill

You have a 2 minute record now. You will want to get a 4 minute record to test it out with your current reproducer. A Blue Amberol cylinder will do the job nicely (almost all of them are 4 minute). Search "Edison Blue Amberol" on ebay and you'll find a bunch of them (or maybe somebody has one here). Most aren't very expensive and will give you a chance to test out your machine. Be patient, and I think you'll end up loving cylinder record players.

Regards,
Martin

oops .yeah,i knew i needed a 4,just suffered temp confusion.
we dont plan on keeping this,was picked up for resale,and we just want to make sure it runs correctly for the buyer.

Im off to try and find a 4 on ebay.Seems to be alot of them up,but i dont yet see how to know if they are 4s

Thank you for your help so far,and any more that comes our way.

"Seriously, is it really good advice to a novice to remove the mainspring?"

Yes, There's an old saying... "If it ain't broke, Don't fix it". If the mainspring plsy through a full winding, There is absolutely no reason to remove it. However, I do recommend removing the Oil Lubrication screw (If the housing has one) and spraying some lubrication liberally in there to help things along. then put back the screw.. If there is no screw, then I'd try to squeeze a WD-40 stick type nozzle in there and just liberally drench the spring as much as possible to loosen up any old caked grease..

No need to remove the msinspring if you don't have to, and I'd certainly not recommend it especially for a beginner phonograph collector.

)

Tony K.

Edison Collector/Restorer