The new guy with a Columbia basket case

[Curt A]

The horn for an AH should be 22" in length.

George P.

Thanks, George... Would this 16.5" horn look odd? Or would it suffice until the absolute correct one could be found?

[phonogfp]

Thanks, George... Would this 16.5" horn look odd? Or would it suffice until the absolute correct one could be found?

As common as the illustration are for the AH as shown in period ads and catalogs (giving us a mental image of what an AH should look like), I do think the 16.5" horn would look odd.

George P.

[Adam_G]

Curt, thanks for the ebay link. I'm on there almost every day but hadn't seen this one yet. As George has stated, it's unfortunately probably not the right length for my machine. I had scaled an old ad to determine what size I required (back on page 2) and anything between 18" to 22" would be good. Any shorter or longer than that and I'm worried that the needle won't have the correct weight applied to the records.

Back to my past progress:
I managed to get a new traveling tone arm from a fellow that owns the original casting patterns for some of Columbia's parts. So even though this isn't an original part from 1902, it's still made from the original pattern. Surely I get vintage points for that ? It came with a new horn cradle too, so that was a bonus, however there were a few issues. Firstly the polishing done on this arm was such a super shine that it made it look like electroplated plastic, so I bead blasted it and polished it back up to a shine by hand so that it didn't look perfect. Also did this for the tone arm support bracket so that they matched.
The other issue was the little index hole that a little peg on the back of the reproducer fits into. It wasn't exactly in the right spot (or maybe the reproducers pin wasn't in the right spot?) so I had to elongate the hole to make it work.

[phonogfp]

Very nice job toning the finish on those arms! They both look much more authentic now.

By the way, one of those arms is the "support arm," and the other is the "traveling arm." A "tone arm" is hollow and carries sound to the horn.

George P.

[Adam_G]

Thank you sir! Though I am aware of the difference between "tone arm", "traveling arm", and "support arm", I keep mixing the terminology accidentally as I've had to use the terms incorrectly (on purpose) when searching the internet for parts. It seems other people that sell these parts don't quite know what they have and label them incorrectly. But thank you for the reminder, and I'll try to keep it straight since I don't have to search for those parts anymore.

Update for the day:
If you look back on page 1 you'll see the crank handle was pretty beat up. It had dents, pits, scratches, and chipped plating. I took the liberty of removing all the nickel plating by abrasive means, and smoothing things out best I could. A friend of a friend has a lathe, so I gave him the handle to turn down a bit to remove the giant groove it had from rubbing on the crank escutcheon (that tube trim piece that goes in the wooden box where you put the crank handle through). He did a great job, and as a bonus he also made me an escutcheon from some spare bronze rod he had kicking around.
The same fellow informed me that the center hole in the top plate of the mechanism was more of an oval than a circle, so he machined it a bit oversized to be a circular hole again. Then he helped me fix the wobble the main spindle had in that plate by adding some brass back to the spindle and turning it back down to fit the center hole a lot better. Lastly, he fabricated on his lathe a new should screw to fit into the crank handle that holds the new wooden knob I got from Ron Sitko. It turned (lathe humor) out great!

One issue I had with that original turn table was that it would slip on this newly rejuvenated spindle, so I took some automotive valve grindin compound and applied that to the brass and grave it a few spins in the turn table. This was perfect for roughing it up enough to provide grip, as well as leveling out the tapered angle between the two parts so they make a tighter fit.

[Adam_G]

Before I could put the motor back together I wanted to spiffy up some of the corroding parts. Most noticeably was the top motor plate which had rusted where the nickle plating had come off. There's also the new crank escutcheon and crank itself which no longer have nickle plating on it. So, how to nickle plate on the cheap!?

I did some research and found a relatively easy method for nickle plating, and all it takes is vinegar, salt, nickle, and electricity (but not a lot). I can go into the specifics of the process if anyone is interested, but for now here's some pics.

[Curt A]

"I can go into the specifics of the process if anyone is interested..."

Please elaborate on the process, Adam...

[alang]

Yes please...

[Adam_G]

Sorry for the wait, it's been a crazy busy week. I'm wondering if I should write out the procedure in this thread, or start a new one just for nickle plating?

[Lucius1958]

Sorry for the wait, it's been a crazy busy week. I'm wondering if I should write out the procedure in this thread, or start a new one just for nickle plating?

It might do well in the "Tips & Tricks" section.

Bill