HO JOY, WHEN THE SPRING GOES!

[NEFaurora]

As much as I am an Originality freak, There is a lot to be said about replacing a 100+ Year old mainspring... Function definitely over form... What good is a display piece if it does not run??!???

I have a Model "B" Home in my collection (I have two of them), and the older one built in very early 1905 has a very worn Main Spring that needs replacement. It will play through a full 2 minute cylinder well, but after that, The spring is dead. I need to replace the Main Spring in it with a New Main Spring, or one from a good used motor that will run more than 4 minutes at least... It's one of the smaller Phono projects that I am looking forward to doing...

)

Tony K.

Edison Collector.

[Gramtastic]

I had a similar incident with a Columbia AA, part way through a cylinder (which I had just bought...) there was a loud noise, the handle spun madly and flew off, the machine lifted off the shelf and the cylinder hit the underside of a horn from another machine and smashed itself into 1000 pieces. When I had recovered from the shock I discovered that a small brass gear wheel has split in two allowing the full force of the wound spring to unwind in about half a second..... scary !!

[gramophone-georg]

I've just gotten into the habit of "if it's original and needs servicing, it's getting replaced" as far as springs go. I am also a believer in replacing governor springs same time as well as doing whatever else a spring motor might need. That way, I can use it as often and as much as I want without worry, as well as sell it without handing off a time bomb.

The other consideration on replacing these parts with new is that the new parts are available NOW but might start drying up and be unavailable when you really need them.

[Victrolacollector]

I had a spring go on a Magnola Talking Machine when cranking it, I was 14 and my sister was 5 years old and not only did it scare me, she can still remember that aweful sound. I had both mainsprings replaced and both are still working good after more than 25 years. I am not kidding, I have played thousands of records on that machine with no spring breaks.

When I am finished playing the machine, I always keep my motors ran down so that there is no tension.

I still need to get some springs done, but seem to hold off because they still work.

[Victrolacollector]

I've just gotten into the habit of "if it's original and needs servicing, it's getting replaced" as far as springs go. I am also a believer in replacing governor springs same time as well as doing whatever else a spring motor might need. That way, I can use it as often and as much as I want without worry, as well as sell it without handing off a time bomb.

The other consideration on replacing these parts with new is that the new parts are available NOW but might start drying up and be unavailable when you really need them.

I totally agree with that. Get them done while we can still get mainsprings. I still need to get some put in my old L Door to be on the safe side. I would also like to get some replaced on my other dozen machines. It all takes time and money, more so the money for me. But once the mainsprings are replaced, it makes a world of difference.

[Zwebie]

Well I finally got around to opening the spring barrel.
I thought that the spring might have tore loose on the end, but to my suprise it snapped near the center!

Many have commented that we should replace our springs with new replacements.
Well, this was a replacement spring from Ron Sitko, which I installed about 10 years ago.

I have recorded over 500 cylinder video's, and probably played several thousand cylinders on this machine since replacing the spring!

Do you think Ron will replace it free of charge due to defective workmanship?

Cheers, Bob S.

[Stephen_Heatherly]

I've been collecting and restoring machines for about 13 years. I started when I was 12 now I'm 25. In that time I've had a few springs break. The springs broke in my standard disc talking machine model a, my home model b, my edison standard model d and in my Columbia eagle all when the machines were playing. I always thought the spring would be more likely to break while winding the motor. Apparently that's not true. No damage to any other parts nor the record occurred when it happened. All were the original springs and I play my machines frequently so I'm not surprised it happened. One of the springs broke in my victrola VI while I was winding the motor. Now I'm in the habit of replacing the mainspring (s) when I get another new to me machine so I'm less likely to have a problem later.

Stephen

[AmberolaAndy]

Well, I finally took a spring barrel apart for the first time the other day (on my VV-50 machine.) I took out the mainspring and gears, cleaned them, regreased with wheel bearing grease and put it all back together and voila! it actually worked! YAY!! and now my VV-50 no longer makes a thumping noise! And today I took apart and cleaned the graphite out of a two spring victrola motor and successfully put it back together. So I’m more confident than ever to replace a bad mainspring! (Only on Victrolas that is... Edisons and other makes not yet.)