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Hit of the Week wrote:From your picture, it appears your reproducer is not all the way down in the carriage.........you should not be able to see the rim of the reproducer....it should be "flush" with the carriage.

Dale

The reproducer is not seated down all the way. Sometimes I think the metal has expanded in the carriage ring or the reproducer edge and needs to be polished down to fit.

phonogal wrote:

Hit of the Week wrote:From your picture, it appears your reproducer is not all the way down in the carriage.........you should not be able to see the rim of the reproducer....it should be "flush" with the carriage.

Dale

The reproducer is not seated down all the way. Sometimes I think the metal has expanded in the carriage ring or the reproducer edge and needs to be polished down to fit.

Some Edison reproducers have potmetal shells and they expand and need to be worked down as you suggest.

Clay

oh ok,
If that's the case then I'm going to have to sand down some on this pot metal reproducer.
It's a tight fit as it is, and I have to sort of press it in.

The edge of the top lip is a bit bigger than the hole in the carriage. I flipped it around just to check.

I was assuming the carriage was steel. Could that be pot metal too, and may have shrunk?
The carriage doesn't appear to be cracked or deformed like I've seen other pot metal parts deteriorate.

I sure appreciate everyone's input and advice.
Alan

Please please forgive me if you know this...but do you have the pin(not sure what it's called) pulled out to allow the reproducer to sit on the carriage? It holds the reproducer off the carriage when it's not playing.

I did that one day when trying to play a cylinder for someone. I forgot to pull back the metal pin that holds the reproducer off the carriage. Goodness I felt like a dork when I figured it out.

Iva

Iva - Yes, the pin is out. In fact, the pin is not even back in the arm. It still has a fine coat of rust (as the whole thing did), and I haven't cleaned it up and put it back in its spot yet.

One thing (of many) that I still don't understand: How does the stylus go into the groves of the cylinder? The stylus looks like it's at 90 degree to the cylinder grooves. And it looks like there is a point of metal (burr) coming off of the stylus arm that will hit the grooves first. Can you see that little point in the last pic i posted?

AlanD wrote:oh ok,
If that's the case then I'm going to have to sand down some on this pot metal reproducer.
It's a tight fit as it is, and I have to sort of press it in.

The edge of the top lip is a bit bigger than the hole in the carriage. I flipped it around just to check.

I was assuming the carriage was steel. Could that be pot metal too, and may have shrunk?
The carriage doesn't appear to be cracked or deformed like I've seen other pot metal parts deteriorate.

I sure appreciate everyone's input and advice.
Alan

The carriage is not potmetal.

Clay

Are you able to get the reproducer to set in the holder better? I agree that it doesn't look seated in the holder right...it's not flush.

Iva

AlanD wrote: One thing (of many) that I still don't understand: How does the stylus go into the groves of the cylinder? The stylus looks like it's at 90 degree to the cylinder grooves. And it looks like there is a point of metal (burr) coming off of the stylus arm that will hit the grooves first. Can you see that little point in the last pic i posted?

It's difficult to tell for sure from your earlier photo, but it looks like a Model H stylus bar. That's a 4-minute reproducer. The record in the photo looks like (again - it's difficult to be sure) a 2-minute cylinder. Don't play a 2-minute cylinder with a Model H reproducer.

Here's an article that illustrates all the basic Edison reproducers and the proper cylinder records they play:

http://www.antiquephono.org/basic-antiq ... onal-tips/

George P.

Iva - I haven't finished sanding the reproducer yet. I won't touch the carriage since its apparently not pot metal.

George - the cylinder is Edison Blue Amberol BA # 1798 WHERE THE RIVER SHANNON FLOWS.
It's the only cylinder I have at the moment. I bought it at the Hershey antique auto swap meet, imagine that.

Well that worked!
I gently sanded the edges of the reproducer and got it to fit all the way flush, and now it touches the cylinder.
And I got it to play a bit, first the first time in 80 or 90 years (who knows). It had certainly been out deteriorating for many years.

I had to tinker with the 2-4 minute gears but I have that working now.

It is still weak and will not play all the way through, but I found that if I hold up some of the weight of the carriage with my finger it will play all the way though without slowing down and stopping.
The only thing I know to do now is clean the gear's bearings and re-oil them.