The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I gave an earlier one of those large Victrola XVI's to a guy a few years ago. The one with the carving down the legs from about 1912-13. It was really windy that day and I didn't realize he brought no rope with him or anything to tie it down with. I had it laying down in my truck when I went to meet him, so the wind wasn't an issue for me, but I did have the lid tied shut. He said he would stop in about 20 miles when he was going through a bigger town and get something to hold it. Well, he decided not to that, and I got a phone call later with him telling me the wind sucked it out of his pickup as a semi went past him. It went way up into the air and landed under the semi that was behind the first one! It wasn't really my doing, but that's about the worst one I've been involved with. I did have the motor out of it to make it easier to handle, so it wasn't quite a total loss.... I wonder what that second truck driver thought?

I made the mistake of removing the governor from a Triumph model A motor without realizing that the spring was not fully wound down.
As soon as I removed the governor the spring unwound at an incredible pace and the gears were whizzing. Without thinking I tried to use my
thumb to stop the large gear. My thumb was cut pretty deep. That was almost 50 years ago and I still have the scar. lesson learned!!

Pete

Oh! Just nothing... Another one just yesterday, when regreasing and reassembling the springs in an old HMV motor. The bull gear teeth catched on my hand when kicking the barrel to take out the lid.

VanEpsFan1914 wrote:

Fifteenth, I bought not one but three 1940s cardboard portables. .

Were they those Birch portables with the swollen pot metal tone arm? I bought one of those back in 2009 when I didn’t know any better. I’ve since parted It out and threw the case away.

One was a Birch 500 which I got running and sold for what I paid for it.

Two was a Sears Silvertone which is basically the same machine. I scrapped it and sold the motor.

Three was a Conley Phonola which ended up being sold to someone for $100.

My 4-40 has had a difficult life. It was the one I restored for a high school project and when my cousin and I were wheeling it down a hill disaster struck. The machine vibrated towards the edge of the flat cart and before I could catch it, the whole thing flipped and broke one of the "u" shaped leg stretchers. Then again last year I was moving to a new home and thought I could carry it myself (I had done so before, even carrying it up front porch steps) Well, I wasn't as strong as I use to be and I ended up stumbling and the machine fell on top of me catching my right leg under it. Luckily I just sprained my knee, but I broke the other side of the "u" shaped leg stretcher. My only other incident of note was with my portable VV-50. The springs would jump before I got around to re-greasing them. It was my first machine and I was only 13. My family still had dial-up and I never dreamed resources could be online about old phonographs. I just didn't think people cared for them- they only play 78s So anyway, I had this nice early front-wind machine, a couple books of good records (you could tell they were owned by a collegiate guy who liked good jazz) And I didn't believe the "one needle, one record" mantra. I wore out so many good records by Bennie Moten, Miffs Stompers, Blue Steele- and Al Bowlly. And It's with the Al Bowlly record that my machine disaster lies. I remember it clearly, I was at my sister's first house and I was playing a beautiful copy of The Very Thought of You on the Scroll label. The spring jumped....the lid closed on the record. To this day when I listen to the song I remember the exact moment in the music that it happened. It caused a whole hunk of the record to break off. I was mortified. Not because I knew it was a somewhat scarce record, but because I loved the song so much and his rendition really is beautiful. So in my frustration I unhinged the lid and flipped it back causing the back panel to snap in half. So there went my favorite record and my only machine. Thanks for letting me vent on that one. I did have an almost disaster. Again, I didn't have resources like I do now and didn't know hide glue would break down in water nor, that Victrolas were veneered. I thought they were such a high quality brand that veneers couldn't possibly be used. So I took all the components off my oak IX, took it outside and washed it with Murphy's oil. I hosed it off and left it out to dry in the sun. I looked outside about a half hour later and noticed the veneer was starting to curl up everywhere. I rushed it inside and started clamping down areas all over with whatever I could find. It ended up pulling through in the end. Thankfully, because I really do like the little guy.

30+ years ago, I had just purchased an off-brand upright for $15. I loaded it into the bed of my $25 pickup truck. I tied it upright in the bed. As I was making a left turn, I saw in my rear view mirror, the rope break and the phonograph toppling (in slow motion) over the right side of the bed and shattering into a million and one pieces. There was not one salvageable bit left.

Zkeener323 wrote: My family still had dial-up and I never dreamed resources could be online about old phonographs. I just didn't think people cared for them- they only play 78s

If this was in the 90s or early 2000s I think people wouldn’t care for them just because they were records and not CDs. Because I remember people looked at records then, no matter what speed, like we do with Black and Silver plastic CRT TVs today.

Pete Stratford wrote:I made the mistake of removing the governor from a Triumph model A motor without realizing that the spring was not fully wound down.
As soon as I removed the governor the spring unwound at an incredible pace and the gears were whizzing. Without thinking I tried to use my
thumb to stop the large gear. My thumb was cut pretty deep. That was almost 50 years ago and I still have the scar. lesson learned!!

Pete

I've had a couple of "whiz-bangs" myself. The first was with my Amberola 30: I foolishly disengaged the mandrel gear - fortunately, the only consequence was a slight ding on that gear. The other two were more accidental: a slipping bevel gear on my BI, which ended up with me having to replace it; and a similar incident with a Talk-O-Phone.

-Bill

I don't have a personal disaster worthy of this amazing thread, but I witnessed one at a specialist auction of machines and records.

Having loaded a large cabinet gramophone into his estate car (station wagon to our American friends) the buyer slammed the tailgate shut, whereupon the two front legs of the gramophone smashed through the window glass. He wasn't a bit pleased, and some of those present learned a few new words .