The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Has anyone ever replaced a worn "felt plug" turntable brake that applies friction to the inside rim of the turntable to stop it? What did you use? Thanks!

If there's remaining leather that's just worn down, a quick fix is to super-glue a small piece of shoe leather to it. I get the leather from the tongue of an old boot. The proper way, of course would be to carefully bend the prongs holding the old leather button and replacing it, but I've mangled those in the past.
B.

I just use an off-cut from a treadle sewing machine belt to replace the old brake shoe.

I ran into that issue a while back. I found that where on many machines the sewing machine belt is the right thickness, the Edison seems to be somewhat thicker, especially on the breaking end.
So here is what I did. I took a piece of soft leather cut from an old coin purse, any flexible thin leather should work. I cut it into about a 2" square. Here is where its a bit tricky to explain. In order to make a snug fit into the break lugs, and then be a bit larger on the breaking side, I began by putting a thin layer of tacky glue on the leather and tightly rolled the leather till it was just big enough to be forced into the holder. Then I made a cut in the leather so that I could continue to roll the front part of the material for a few more turns, glueing as I went along. That created a two thickness brake leather which from what I could see in my old one may have been the way they were installed. The side towards the turntable was way too thick to go into the holder making it appear as if they had it made with a larger break surface.
After you have rolled the first part I snipped off the excess leather from the end that goes into the break. After the front in rolled the thicker size you want, which is probably a couple more turns you can remove the extra leather there also and let it dry with a cloths pin or something holding the leather roll together till it dries. Then when its is installed I made a preliminary cut to the break end and made a couple tries at stopping the turn table, slicing off any excess leather till it clears the turn table in the off position and makes a quick positive stop in the breaking mode.

Thank you, gentlemen. This is exactly the solution I was looking for, as I just picked up a Victor 8-12 whose remaining leather just crumbled. The diagram is great--I'll have to do just that with some old leather. By the way, never having heard an Orthophonic except at noisy shows and on YouTube, I was blown out of the water, even by the vertically-folded 8-12. In a blind test, I'd think the sound was electronically amplified. This is my first Victor; otherwise I have all Edison machines and some Grafonolas. Thanks again for your quick replies!

Bill

Hey Bill,

I knew you'd like that 8-12! They're nice sounding machines and the cabinets on them are rather attractive, IMO. Next thing you know, you're going to find yourself wanting a 10-50.

Sean

Or better yet a 202

gramophoneshane wrote:Or better yet a 202

Haha, I was waiting for that! You're quick, Shane!

You know people like me too well, but no, no. Now that I have nine machines, I'll be getting more selective. The only two things definitely on my want list are a Credenza and an Amberola 1A. On my trip back through PA to pick up another DD machine, I did browse the collection of this seller and saw a lovely 10-50 and some other pristine rarities, including a radio (?) console (forget the model/maker ) given to Gloria Swanson by the studio. I should have taken notes, but was in a hurry to get back home after the show.

Bill