The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I am slowly cleaning up my Victor IV.
What color is the nameplate on the front? Brass letters w/black background or Nickel letters on background.
Also are there any kind of isolating washers between the motor and its mounting board?

Hi Howard,

I'm quite sure the tag was nickel plated brass... and as far as I know the motor is always isolated to reduce noise; remember the case acts like a sound box so any noise from the motor is amplified.

My Vic IV has pads between the motor board and motor. The label has what appears to be silver coating or plating on the raised areas. The color of that coating does not look like nickel though. Russie

My Victor IV has the felt washers isolating the top of the motor from the bottom of the mahogany motor board/lid. They were still good so I re-used them.

Damfino59 wrote:My Victor IV has the felt washers isolating the top of the motor from the bottom of the mahogany motor board/lid. They were still good so I re-used them.

How thick are these washers?

The felt washers flatten with age. I use rubber washers that I purchase from Ron Sitko. The washers are thick enough to provide some dampening cushion but not so thick that it makes it difficult to connect the crank. You could probably purchase rubber washers at a good hardware store. I don't know if there is any reason to look for felt washers. Anyone? Jerry

I was going to use the felt selfstick cushions that you use on the bottom of lamps and vases to protect the tabletop from them. These are already round and just need a hole punched in them. My other alternative was to washers made of EPDM foam.

I use the heavy duty self stick round felt pads for chair legs and punch a hole in the middle. I use a carpet knife to slice off the self stick part, then they are very close to the original washers. You could even dunk them in dye if you wanted to make them look more age appropriate.
Andreas

I bought a whole bag of felt washers for not much that I use. I think I got mine from Amazon, but if you Google "felt washers" a lot of suppliers should come up.

Clay

Actually going to take a look at my Victor IV I discovered I used home made felt washers. It was my Victrola IV where I re-used the old ones. After all the Victor IV is the machine use for listening to my records:

http://youtu.be/Vxzw6FXUKlc

Sometimes I use rubber washers from Ace hardware.