The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Anyone have a good source for cylinder boxes?

There are several spiral tube companies out there that can make boxes for you. There Is the late style Blue Amberol, and Royal Purple Amberol, and Columbia Indestructible boxes made by BE Walters. I had boxes made by Acme Spirally Wound Papers Products in the past, Their is usually a 500-1000 piece minimum order. I found that for batting, you can use the tight cotton blend material used for quilt making (not the polyester fiber fill, but a batting similar to what is found in old cylinder boxes) or you can cut paper towel tubes and glue mandrels in the boxes. Lately I have been making a box similar to an Amberol box for cylinders, they take forever to make and a pain to line up without specialized tools, but they will work non the less.

What kind of boxes are you looking for?

There are two main kinds: There are the
earlier ones that have the cardboard cylinder
a bit larger diameter to make enough room for
the soft liner to protect wax records.

Then there are the later kind such as were
used for Blue Amberol cylinders,
which are of a smaller diameter so that the
bare cardboard just fits around the celluloid
record.

As far as I know, Burdette Walters has only
those later kind.

Also, do you want them with labels?
If so, which kind of labels?
Or do you want them not to have any labels?

Chuck