The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hello,
Thanks to Rich Gordon I now own the nicest looking Amberola B-VIII I have ever seen. I decided to clean the lower drive pulley as they are usually pretty dirty. After cleaning off the crud I discovered that the pulley has a band of cork around the middle. Has anyone seen this before? Is this factory done or has someone added it later for belt traction. Also I can't see any way to remove the pulley as it appears that the set screw is under the cork?
Pete

That IS a nice machine! That is regrettably a model I don't have. Using a cork veneer for traction wasn't a bad idea. Years ago, I was vexed by a slipping belt and used a strip of common masking tape instead of cork to provide some surface texture for the belt to grab. Not too pretty, but it worked great.

Hi Pete-- That B VIII is really nice. I purchased a later VIII from Charley Hummel at the Wayne show. Had I seen Rich's B VIII, I may have given you some competition The cork lining on the pulley appears on some of the earlier Amberolas. The VIII I just bought has an early serial number and it has the cork lining-- I've owned 3 other VIII's over the past several years and one had the cork (earlier SN, the other two did not (later SN). There is a hole in the cork that allows access to the set screw that holds the pulley on the shaft. Often the hole is filled with grease and/or small bits of cork, but it's there. I guess there is a chance the lining has slipped a little on the pulley and rotated enough to cover the hole---but the hole exists.

Good luck with the machine-- If I can help in any way, give a holler. It was nice meeting you at the show and swapping machines/parts. I hope to see you at another show.

Brad Abell

Now everyone is making me sad that I sold it. Oh well, just had to many Amberola's.

He Pete, please post some pictures of the Columbia's and the 1B.

Rich Gordon

To increase friction on metal pulleys, I've used orange RTV gasket-making goo; it looks funny, but is mostly hidden by the belt & can be scraped off easily. It also works to seal the very loose joints on "Kent" type DD adapters.

Pete,

Awesome machine! I love how the metal casting covers the whole deck, it must have been hard to cast and expensive to produce. No wonder it wasn't made for long.

This is only the second one of these that I have seen, and the striping looks incredible.
You are very lucky to own such a nice machine.

Cheers, Bob S.

I have an Amberola D-X (SN 16297) that has cork used on the original drive pulley.

Fran

My DD A-80 also has cork liner on the pulleys. One of mine crumbled, so I replaced it with cork of the same thickness from a crafts store. Works like a charm.

Pete, your Amberola looks really nice. Congratulations.

Andreas

Nice VIII, Pete! That later variation doesn't turn up too often.

As others have mentioned, the cork seems to have been installed at the factory.

George P.