The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I picked up a box of Victor parts at the local Antique mall last week. What I thought was a box with a Victor 4 spring motor turned out to also have other parts inside including a #5 soundbox. With exception of a few spider web cracks in the back it's pretty solid. After a few plays it was obvious it needed some attention. I blew the inside out and around the diaphragm, checked for air tightness, looked at the bearings and added some lube to them. It played better, but still sounded distorted. I checked the inside again thinking maybe I missed some dirt or something foreign but no. Nothing is loose and I oiled the bearings and all pivot points of the needle bar again but it still played the same. Back at the bench my only thought were the gaskets holding the diaphragm were dried up, but if I remember right these are paper...why not just add oil to them? So I put 3 drops of oil inside the soundbox along the edge of each side of the diaphragm and then slowly rolled the soundbox allowing the oil to saturate the gasket. Wala!! Sounds great, no rattles, and no distortion at high levels. Just wondering if anyone has tried this..

I have successfully done this with Armor-All in situations where the original sound box gaskets were an odd size, or when the original gaskets looked good (no cracks) but were hard. I've had very good results with the method, but I only do this on machines I don't play often. For regular "players," I do a complete rebuild.

This may prompt some to ask, "Why don't you just get off your lazy duff and rebuild ALL your sound boxes/reproducers?" The answer is that I rebuild all my cylinder reproducers, because the original gaskets don't show. However, I've never been entirely happy with the appearance of new gaskets in Exhibitions, Columbia Analyzing sound boxes, etc. So if the original gaskets are broken, falling out, etc., they are replaced. But if the original gaskets are sound and the machine is one that I won't play often (front-mount machines, etc), I attempt to preserve the original gaskets. That's just me...

George P.

Interesting. But really, all you've confirmed is that you need new gaskets. If the existing gaskets use any rubber, the oil will eventually attack them and cause the rubber to decompose.

All that being said, if it continues to sound nice, use it as is.

JerryVan wrote:Interesting. But really, all you've confirmed is that you need new gaskets. If the existing gaskets use any rubber, the oil will eventually attack them and cause the rubber to decompose.

All that being said, if it continues to sound nice, use it as is.

the 5 has paper gaskets so oil wont harm it it will just make them expand and that was exactly what was needed since the contact with the membrane firmed up

tino