The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Jerry B. wrote:Here are photos of my spare bracket for mounting a Columbia support arm. Jerry B.

Phonolair wrote:Ok I got curious today while I was down in the phonolair and took the front mount bracket off my early AH.
So my machine does indeed have two mounting holes ⅝"(16mm)apart, not ⅞"(22mm) apart, center to center.
But the mounting bracket holes are ⅞"(22mm) apart.
The mounting bracket was held on using one screw not two.
You can see from the witness mark where the unused screw hole left a mark in the case finish.
I've never had this machine apart for any cleaning so I never noticed it before.
The one screw that is being used is much longer than the two screws you normally see used on these brackets.
So this doesn't explain anything but it sure makes me wonder if there isn't another bracket with holes closer together than the norm were use to seeing. Or could some of the early AH's been miss drilled.

jboger wrote:Not to go off topic, I was not aware that Columbia ever had a model with a record hold down clamp.

I have an early AH. I will look at the spacing between holes. I think it better to measure center-to-center rather than edge-to-edge.

By the way, the two machines shown are both good-looking machines.

John

Enrico wrote:

Phonolair wrote:Ok I got curious today while I was down in the phonolair and took the front mount bracket off my early AH.
So my machine does indeed have two mounting holes ⅝"(16mm)apart, not ⅞"(22mm) apart, center to center.
But the mounting bracket holes are ⅞"(22mm) apart.
The mounting bracket was held on using one screw not two.
You can see from the witness mark where the unused screw hole left a mark in the case finish.
I've never had this machine apart for any cleaning so I never noticed it before.
The one screw that is being used is much longer than the two screws you normally see used on these brackets.
So this doesn't explain anything but it sure makes me wonder if there isn't another bracket with holes closer together than the norm were use to seeing. Or could some of the early AH's been miss drilled.

Yes, in fact also other Columbia machines that I have have 16mm as distance. The problem is my AH which has 11mm as distance between hole and hole!

JerryVan wrote:

Enrico wrote:

Phonolair wrote:Ok I got curious today while I was down in the phonolair and took the front mount bracket off my early AH.
So my machine does indeed have two mounting holes ⅝"(16mm)apart, not ⅞"(22mm) apart, center to center.
But the mounting bracket holes are ⅞"(22mm) apart.
The mounting bracket was held on using one screw not two.
You can see from the witness mark where the unused screw hole left a mark in the case finish.
I've never had this machine apart for any cleaning so I never noticed it before.
The one screw that is being used is much longer than the two screws you normally see used on these brackets.
So this doesn't explain anything but it sure makes me wonder if there isn't another bracket with holes closer together than the norm were use to seeing. Or could some of the early AH's been miss drilled.

Yes, in fact also other Columbia machines that I have have 16mm as distance. The problem is my AH which has 11mm as distance between hole and hole!

Enrico,

Is your 11mm dimension taken from the center of one hole to the center of the other, or is it the space between the edge of one hole and the edge of the other? Please refer only to the center-to-center dimension so we're all on the same page here.

jboger wrote:I have three AH's, all with different motors. These include the earliest version under discussion in this thread. And I have an early front-mount AK (well most of it). All four have the cast aluminum arm mount that takes two screws to secure it to the side of the case. I believe one of the four is a reproduction. Nonetheless all four have two holes that are 22 mm center to center.

By the way, none of these ever took a record clamp. So curious about the one illustrated above.