The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

The new pulley idea is a good one. You can leave the original in the bottom of the cabinet. (A good solution if you're not handy with tools or threading holes)

Barring that, the next best thing is as suggested; drill & tap oversize, or drill & tap another hole.

To my thinking, these are the only two good options.

Drilling and tapping a new hole freehand is a little riskier than opening the existing hole and going up to a 6-32, (the risk is that the hole will not come out on center). The drill is likely to grab when you are only increasing the size a little, so be sure to secure the pulley before drilling. Another alternative is to post a wanted ad in the yankee trader section. Good luck.

Django wrote:Drilling and tapping a new hole freehand is a little riskier than opening the existing hole and going up to a 6-32, (the risk is that the hole will not come out on center). The drill is likely to grab when you are only increasing the size a little, so be sure to secure the pulley before drilling. Another alternative is to post a wanted ad in the yankee trader section. Good luck.

Excellent cautions!!

Knowing that there are aluminum repros, I would go with that, it's easy to drill and tap a hole... The pot metal was a rotten idea in the first place and it will just continue to get worse as time goes on...

5-40 Tap with correct drill ($8.43), so you can use your original screw with the aluminum pulley:
https://www.amazon.com/Drill-America-PO ... 2136&psc=1

Tap Handle ($10.94):
https://www.amazon.com/Vermont-American ... 98RERPTEM3

In my experience , its a common problem with these pot- metal lower-belt pulleys as used on the Edison Home and Gem. Almost certainly the pot metal has expanded slightly over time so that the screw no longer grips the pot metal thread properly. Best way forward in my opinion is to find a replacement part either a good original or a modern replacement such as is available from Ron Sitko as other posters have suggested. Regards from UK Dulcetto

If you have experience with drilling and tapping holes, drill it out with the proper drill size for a 6-32 tap and thread it. If you have no previous experience, this is no place to start. The best thing to do in that case would be to buy a good used part or a new one. Pot metal is what it is and we have no option other than to deal with it. Sometimes it can be repaired and sometimes it must be replaced.

Jim