The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I am wanting to clean the old grease and regrease the main spring on my phonograph. I am not wanting to remove it from the barrel. I am thinking of soaking it in WD-40,never removing it from the barrel, letting it dry a few days then regreasing it. is this a suitable method with good reselts or just a big mess and not worth the trouble? I feel that since it winds and plays threw a full 12" record that it's not broken, but I am not sure. I'm not even sure of what to use for grease?

In over 40 years of working on these machines, I have come to the conclusion that shortcuts lead to trouble. I suggest you get a copy of The Complete Talking Machine and learn how to do this the right way. It is not hard and although messy, it is rewarding to bring this stuff back to life.

WD-40 of today does not seem to be the stuff it was years ago. I have read a lot of bad stuff about it on the clock repair forums.

That said, someone here once suggested a soak in automatic transmission fluid is a way to lube springs without taking them out of a barrel. I would not bother with this and prefer to clean and inspect a mainspring.
Dave D

Dave D wrote:In over 40 years of working on these machines, I have come to the conclusion that shortcuts lead to trouble. I suggest you get a copy of The Complete Talking Machine and learn how to do this the right way. It is not hard and although messy, it is rewarding to bring this stuff back to life.

WD-40 of today does not seem to be the stuff it was years ago. I have read a lot of bad stuff about it on the clock repair forums.

That said, someone here once suggested a soak in automatic transmission fluid is a way to lube springs without taking them out of a barrel. I would not bother with this and prefer to clean and inspect a mainspring.
Dave D

I know your right, I was just seeing if it was done a lot. I have had a copy of the compleat talking machine for over 15 years and have watched countless videos on youtube on how it's done, I will admit, removing the mainspring seems pretty straight forward, I am concerned about if it's damaged and small pieces fly out. The machine is a running. fully functional phonograph, I was just opting to see if it could run a bit smoother.

The surest way to lube a spring correctly the first time is to remove the coil from the barrel.

I can appreciate that some people who are not mechanically inclined would be intimidated by the prospect of removing a mainspring. It is messy, sometimes the spring assembly is tricky to take apart, removing the coil is potentially dangerous, and done wrong the coil could be even be damaged. I prefer to carefully unwind the coil manually, rather than jerk the coil out and let it explode out from the barrel in an uncontrolled manner. The obvious solution is sending the spring (still in the barrel) to an experienced phonograph repairman for service.

I have seen remnants of the dried graphite so fused to the spring that removal, cleaning with solvent and then polishing with #0000 steel wool was the only way to make the springs as shiny and slippery as they ought to be.

The original grease was a mixture of Vaseline and graphite flakes, but many of us have had great success using a modern black moly lithium grease available from any automotive store. That modern substitute is far less messy than the nasty graphite formula.

How about soaking the spring and barrel in a solvent and letting it drain before removing it? Should remove a lot of the grease & make for less glop being flung about.

BTW- I'll admit to having taken a very unorthodox route- I have a Swiss table model with a motor so oddly constructed I didn't feel I could take it apart. I squirted WD40 into the barrel as well as I could and kept it running while the solvent softened the grease- it ran better afterward and slightly longer.

I saw Rick on American Restoration do a "complete overhaul" on a motor without disassembly. He got rich off that one job, too!
Dave

columbia1spring wrote:I am wanting to clean the old grease and regrease the main spring on my phonograph. I am not wanting to remove it from the barrel. I am thinking of soaking it in WD-40,never removing it from the barrel, letting it dry a few days then regreasing it. is this a suitable method with good reselts or just a big mess and not worth the trouble? I feel that since it winds and plays threw a full 12" record that it's not broken, but I am not sure. I'm not even sure of what to use for grease?

The trouble with not disassembling and removing the main spring from the barrel is that the spring unwound inside the barrel will trap debris in between the spring. So if you really want it clean, and if you really want it to perform as it should, "cleaning" it by soaking it in some kind of solution really won't cut it.

As said in the previous post: "shortcuts [usually - my word] lead to trouble".

Of course, it's your machine, so if you want to do the "soak and drain" on it, go ahead, and then let us know here how it works out for future reference.

Best,
Fran

Dave D wrote:I saw Rick on American Restoration do a "complete overhaul" on a motor without disassembly. He got rich off that one job, too!
Dave

That was top quality work too!