The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I have a horn for my Edison home that arrived damaged. See pictures below...

Is there an "easy" way to fix this or do I have to have it soldered to function?

The joint between the cone and the paneled section of tge horn was not originally soldered, but rather a wired crimp was used -- that is, the sheet metal on both sections was rolled to form an interlock with a ring of wire inside for strength and to form a 'bump' in one of the crimps to facilitate the interlock. This was done on specialized machinery set up for mass production. I doubt that this specific machinery exists today for repair work, so you may have to bend the distorted metal back into position as best you can, or even remove it, and epoxy the two sections back together, then use auto body filler to hide any sins before paint touch- up on the repair.

Oh wow. That's too bad. Hopefully someone here can offer suggestions on how to fix it!

oh, if you want a quick fix, wrap both pieces with duct tape.

but if you want something good, bend it as best as you can and glue it with epoxy. you can use JB Weld SteelStik to blend the repair before doing paint touch-ups... it's much better than Bondo.

there's no easy fix if you want a decent looking repair.

My question is a little off topic considering the intent of this thread. Every time I've checked into the cost of shipping a large morning glory horn it has been prohibitively expensive. In order to ship with enough space to qualify for insurance, you just about have to ship in a carton that would fit a small refrigerator. At that point you are paying for an oversized carton that is very light. Have others found a safe way to safely ship large horns at a reasonable cost? Jerry

Jerry B. wrote:My question is a little off topic considering the intent of this thread. Every time I've checked into the cost of shipping a large morning glory horn it has been prohibitively expensive. In order to ship with enough space to qualify for insurance, you just about have to ship in a carton that would fit a small refrigerator. At that point you are paying for an oversized carton that is very light. Have others found a safe way to safely ship large horns at a reasonable cost? Jerry

I don't think the package can be any smaller or else you risk the chance of it being damaged... but I guess you could build a molded plastic shell that fits perfectly on the horn; this would make for a smaller package but then you would have to build the shell.

I had a similar situation. The top section was almost completely broken off, because the seller's solution was to put the big end in a big box and tape on a small box to cover the small end. Of course that offered almost no real protection. The two pieces arrived at an about 60 degree angle to one another.

After straightening up the ends, I had a friend more knowledgeable about metal repair than myself rejoin it using a fairly high tin content solder (he described it as an old-fashioned type similar to what would have been used back in the day). It looks very good and has held well. Only a nosey expert looking closely would notice the repair.

Clay