The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

lets see... the worst i have done was send a hair line crack down the center of a copy of "The Yankee Doodle Boy".I was so made because it was actually a copy on a columbia cylinder which i see less often then others.But i was able to repair it for now by melting some wax off of a "donor" cylinder and melting onto the crack at both end of the crack from the inside of the record.

And one other thing.While experimenting with wax i smash a copy of "Oh Tell Us Merry Birds".On perpose!!! Although it was moldly and unsaveable it still bothers me...

Aaron

Might aswell get this one going again, the worst thing Ive done is broke 2 78s that were under my bed when it caved in!, BUT the apsolute worst thing was not done by me, or the person i bought it from (although the packaging wasnt too good!), it is the typical story of the post office!, i have an edison home phonograph that i have been paying off for over 7 months, even though it was a restoration project i could have easily had it running and would have within 5 minutes but, the post office came to the rescue and completely smashed it!, a corner of the bed plate snapped off, the bed plate frame was torn to splinter and the govenor yolk assembly was broken!, thanks royal mail!

So far I've only ever managed to decapitate Nipper by dropping him on the floor (not a real one I might add, but a model 'Nipper'). Considering his body bounced back and hit the edge of my HMV 202 cabinet, the damage could have been MUCH worse!

Now when I move things around (a typically dangerous and ill-advised pursuit) I always look at him and say "Keep your head on, Nipper!"

Well, the one that comes to mind is an embarrassing everybody-knows-better (including me) mistake. I was working on the works of my Amberola 50 on my kitchen counter (what passes for your shop if you live in a condo). And yes, I loosened something, and yes I had forgotten to run down the spring.

The works proceeded to flop wildly all over the counter. To Edison's design credit the machine survived with no major damage. But I now have some battle scars in the quartz counter top.

Clay

kirtley2012 wrote:Might aswell get this one going again, the worst thing Ive done is broke 2 78s that were under my bed when it caved in!, BUT the apsolute worst thing was not done by me, or the person i bought it from (although the packaging wasnt too good!), it is the typical story of the post office!, i have an edison home phonograph that i have been paying off for over 7 months, even though it was a restoration project i could have easily had it running and would have within 5 minutes but, the post office came to the rescue and completely smashed it!, a corner of the bed plate snapped off, the bed plate frame was torn to splinter and the govenor yolk assembly was broken!, thanks royal mail!

I cannot help wondering in what circumstances the bed caved in, but perhaps it would be indelicate to enquire........

Now back to the subject in hand, I once watched a proud buyer load a large cabinet gramophone into his car at the end of an auction. As he slammed the tailgate shut, the front legs of the gramophone smashed through the rear window.

The gramophone appeared none the worse, but our hero had a draughty journey home.

About 30 years ago, the small house we were living in had only one room for phonographs. Fortunately, I didn't have a large number, but things were pretty cramped in there. I had just bought a group of 5-inch cylinders, one of which was a blank. It was a beautiful blank - a very light creamy color that was almost translucent. For some reason I no longer remember, I left this blank temporarily sitting on top of a glass cabinet in the phonograph room. This might have turned out all right except for the fact that the only light switch for the room was located half-way down a wall - well inside the room. After dark, I went to the phonograph room, groping for that light switch in the dark...

Even though my current light switches are all located at the entrance to my phonograph area, I never leave records exposed anymore!

George P.

This happened to me on My Edison B Home the one that I am restoring.
Takeing the bar and the 1/2nut that rides on the feed screw to clean and renickel plate it because the nickel flaked off and left the brass ahowing. On smaller parts I do my own nickel plateing

see pic butter fingers this snapped /broke while removeing the 2 screws

About twenty years ago I made a wonderful record buy. There was a fellow in Cleveland who collected early Country music who bought in bulk any 78's that came his way. He had all three stories of a large old commercial building absolutely crammed with 78's. I had borrowed a pickup truck and brought home about three thousand records-GOOD RECORDS-for the paltry sum of $80.00. When I say good records I mean Caruso on Monarch and DeLuxe, Xavier Scherwenka on Columbia, De Pachmann, Slezak, Nordica and many other desirable classical artists, along with scads of Hot dance records form the 'Twenties, good Ragtime titles, and early Eldridge Johnson Improved, Climax, and Black & Silver Columbia items.

I was thrilled. I loaded the records into my apartment, cleared the dining room and living room and began sorting records. At about one O'clock in the morning I retired for the night.

Now I had at the time a room-mate, of sorts. My apartment was in one of those marvelous old buildings along Lake Avenue, and included a little maid's room and bath off of the kitchen. An acquaintence of mine was in need of a roof over his head, and so I gave him the use of the maid's room until he found a new apartment. This fellow, Lloyd, was a fine guy, but he drank a bit-OK-MORE THAN A BIT!

A little after three in the morning he came home. He decided for some reason to use the front entrance, rather than the kitchen stair, which went directly to his room. The poor sap opened the door, staggered down the long hallway to the dining room in the dark. When he hit the dining room, his feet apparently found one of the stacks of records.

Before this it had not occurred to me that records were slippery.

Lloyd apparently went cannoning around the dining room, slipping on one pile of records, catching his balance and then slipping on another pile. I heard three falls, there may have been more. I found the poor fellow in his room, battered, bruised, with torn jeans. He looked up at me and piteously asked "Why do you hate me, Bob?". I looked at him, sitting there, and couldn't be too angry, he looked so pitiful. I asked whether he had broken anything, and he said "Nothing but a s***pile of records". We both ended up laughing hysterically, and cleaned up the mess in the morning.

Many good records were destroyed, but I still did pretty well, all told.

Lloyd moved back in with his "Better Half".

You never break the crud...only the good stuff. Recently I smashed the only two minute Edison Grand Opera cylinder I own because I put it away "safely" before my cleaning lady arrived. I then knocked it off the shelf in the closet where I had placed it. Sic transit gloria Van Rooy's Toreador Song. I used some rather colourful language.
In terms of dropping mechanisms I have a story involving a grand piano action. In the manner of most self employed people I was out doing a call when I should have been home as I was half sick with the flu. I had to take a grand action out of the instrument to do a repair....they're long, rather heavy and very fragile. When I stood up with it I realized I was going to faint. When I came to, I was sitting in the chair beside the piano with the action across my lap. And I still want to let St Cecilia know how grateful I am for that . This was over ten years ago and I only recently told the client the story. He wasn't as amused as I hoped he'd be.

J

I dropped a nice steel Model O reproducer on the tile floor. It bent the weight positioning wire and broke the positioning screw. Lucky it wasn't pot metal! It was repaired easily but scared the %$#@ out of me as I watched it free fall!