The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

OK obviously I haven't got a very good memory, even from a day ago. So now I'm quite anxious to have a look. Again, pics later, but probably sooner, as I'm leaving work shortly.

Sean

Several years ago, I had a machine shop repair a fiber gear by drilling the metal gear clads apart and replacing the fiber middle with a sheet of white nylon. When reassembled, the nylon was over-sized to the gear diameter. They turned the gear so the nylon was reduced to the same diameter as the clads, and then milled the teeth into the nylon to match the teeth in the clads. The result was a perfect, noiseless 'fiber' gear.

OK, I have the motor out and I assume the fiber gear is the turntable spindle gear that rides against the governor gear? It looks brass to me and also looks undamaged, but the thing WILL NOT budge. Grrr. I'm not going to get forceful with anything, but geez, this thing just won't move!

Sean

And here it is, folks, maybe it is fiber after all? BTW, the entire connecting rod and associated screws are all missing from this thing, I removed the governor guard to take the pics...

Sean

So it is a single barrel motor too. It's not a Paillards then.
Sean, have you tried moving the governor felt away from the governor? It might just be acting as a brake if it's sitting hard against the disc??
Your speed control set-up looks different to Erics. It looks as though yours just needs a simple metal arm attached to it.

Hey Shane,

Yes and yes. The felt was moved away and still nothing. I soaked a few key places with oil, too, nothing. The speed control is a bit different than Eric's and my other Cheney, so I'm stumped. I may just send it to George Vollema and see if he can figure out what the problem is. I'm gonna let it sit all night first and see if it is any freer tomorrow. I did, clean a couple spots on the cabinet. Check my FB later, I'm going to post some pics there. It's going to clean up NICE!

Sean

The catalog calls the finish "Biltmore Mahogany"

This is a bad scan of a Marshall Field brochure from...I think...1919. The caption for the Phonograph department which is cut off...I didn't do the scan...reads :
The Cheney Phonograph with its advanced principles of tone reproduction has something worth while to offer to the person truly appreciative of perfection.
....that would be OrthoSean in this case.
Didn't the Marshall Field Company have an interest in the Cheney...that is to say they wasn't Cheney a sort of subsidiary?

Jim

Hi Sean.
Is that gear on the spindle installed upside down? It doesn't look like it's meshing right with the governor's gear. (Maybe in a previous re-build the gear was installed on the splined shaft the wrong way around?) I'd totally defer to someone more experienced than me on Cheney motors, but it just is looking like that to me. In any case, good luck with it. It's a very cool machine.
Regards,
Martin

No, the gears the right way up.