The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

canyr wrote:Hello.
A spring in my HMV 130 tabletop gramophone has broken.
As I'm about to put a new spring in it, I wonder if I should rather change both springs instead of just one?
Thanks for your opinions.

I have been repairing motors for 40 years , occasionally when a new spring is fitted into an old motor the second spring will break won its first or second winding, this has happened to me on two occasions over this time , I never replace both springs in double spring motors only the broken one , it is unnecessary and expensive to replace both , none of the machines I have repaired have ever come back for another spring to have another fitted , all motors have worked and functioned perfectly well , it is a fallacy that an old spring is too weak to use .

soundgen wrote:

canyr wrote:Hello.
A spring in my HMV 130 tabletop gramophone has broken.
As I'm about to put a new spring in it, I wonder if I should rather change both springs instead of just one?
Thanks for your opinions.

I have been repairing motors for 40 years , occasionally when a new spring is fitted into an old motor the second spring will break won its first or second winding, this has happened to me on two occasions over this time , I never replace both springs in double spring motors only the broken one , it is unnecessary and expensive to replace both , none of the machines I have repaired have ever come back for another spring to have another fitted , all motors have worked and functioned perfectly well , it is a fallacy that an old spring is too weak to use .

To each his own, I guess. To me, having a failure like that even once would be too many. I'm a believer in the adage that "One may not have the time and money to do it right, but there's always time and money to do it over"... especially since one is already 90% to the second spring already. How much is a spring?

What works for you works for you... but on the machines I repair, I want all tensions and tensiles being equal as designed.

soundgen wrote:

canyr wrote:Hello.
A spring in my HMV 130 tabletop gramophone has broken.
As I'm about to put a new spring in it, I wonder if I should rather change both springs instead of just one?
Thanks for your opinions.

I have been repairing motors for 40 years , occasionally when a new spring is fitted into an old motor the second spring will break won its first or second winding, this has happened to me on two occasions over this time , I never replace both springs in double spring motors only the broken one , it is unnecessary and expensive to replace both , none of the machines I have repaired have ever come back for another spring to have another fitted , all motors have worked and functioned perfectly well , it is a fallacy that an old spring is too weak to use .

Many thanks. I guess I'll go with changing only one spring, as I'd rather reduce costs if I can.

canyr wrote:

soundgen wrote:

canyr wrote:Hello.
A spring in my HMV 130 tabletop gramophone has broken.
As I'm about to put a new spring in it, I wonder if I should rather change both springs instead of just one?
Thanks for your opinions.

I have been repairing motors for 40 years , occasionally when a new spring is fitted into an old motor the second spring will break won its first or second winding, this has happened to me on two occasions over this time , I never replace both springs in double spring motors only the broken one , it is unnecessary and expensive to replace both , none of the machines I have repaired have ever come back for another spring to have another fitted , all motors have worked and functioned perfectly well , it is a fallacy that an old spring is too weak to use .

Many thanks. I guess I'll go with changing only one spring, as I'd rather reduce costs if I can.

you won't be disappointed !

"you won't be disappointed !"

Probably not... BUT what if he IS ?

Personally, after just repairing a motor and greasing the springs (not even replacing a broken spring), I wouldn't want to have to go through that process of disassembling the spring barrels and cleaning out the old grease again - once was enough.

Then, if you have to go through the dangerous and tedious job of actually removing and then winding the springs back into the barrels because of a failure that could have been remedied the first time, it's not worth the minimal amount of savings. NOT worth any added risk.

When I say "dangerous", I mean it... A very experienced collector and motor repair guy (if I mentioned his name, many of you would know him) who has done hundreds (maybe thousands) over the last 70 years in North Carolina, made one mistake and an unwinding spring caught him on the arm, cut his arm wide open and he ended up in the hospital with blood poisoning which could have killed him and almost did...