The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi;

The tonearm on my Grafonola moves relatively freely, but is slightly stiff. It moves side to side, as well as up & down freely. Lately, I've noticed that each time I play a record, the needle cuts into it & sounds terrible in general. Only two-three records have not had this problem on this machine, that I can think of off the top of my head. An early Franklyn Baur record I played once on it sounded great, and had no issues with the needle or anything else. An Elvis 78 (yes, I know you're only supposed to play acoustic 78s on here, but at the time I had no idea) sounded great on it, and had no issues either. I don't think the tone arm is stiff enough to be causing this problem, but I'm no expert on these machines.


Thanks in advance.

Any stiffness in the swing of the tonearm is not good as it puts resistance on the tip of the needle causing record wear .If you imagine the groove it taking the needle from the beginning to the end and then add some resistance to it doing that you can see why .
Usually all that is needed is lubrication. May be you could post some pictures.

As long as your tonearm moves relatively freely left and right and up and down you may be able to resolve the problem with lubrication. My tonearm was quite stiff and after trying different lubricants I found this working best for me: Liquid Wrench Dry Lubricant Spray. Remove the tonearm and then spray generously into every joint while moving the joints all the way. Then let it dry completely, which will leave a white dusty coating where the spray hit. I think it is teflon. Simply wipe it off the visible parts of the tonearm and reinstall. This should improve your situation. Has worked for me for several years now. You may have to repeat once a year or so.

Good luck
Andreas

As for sound quality, have you rebuilt the reproducer, or had it rebuilt? Almost always necessary as the gaskets get rock hard after all those years.

And of course I'm assuming you know to change needles with every record played.

Clay

Grafonola tonearms are notorious for their pot metal swelling up and getting stiff. If you have good motion in all directions, then as others have mentioned, lubrication may be sufficient.

However, if you are feeling any resistance, you can use some emery cloth to sand the joint down very lightly, just until it turns freely.

Use caution, and only do this on joints that have a set screw to hold them in place. Some of these tonearms have a press fit joint that is very hard to get back together if you separate it.

FloridaClay wrote:As for sound quality, have you rebuilt the reproducer, or had it rebuilt? Almost always necessary as the gaskets get rock hard after all those years.

And of course I'm assuming you know to change needles with every record played.

Clay

I haven't. I honestly don't know enough about this machine to do it without proper instructions. Nobody in my area repairs these antique phonographs, and I am financially unable to ship it off at the moment.

I recently repaired the motor (there was an issue with the escutcheon & crank- as well as the non-set stop lever) on my own after months of research, but that's it.

How would I go about lubricating the joints and/or rebuilding the producer?

Columbia reproducers are a bit trickier to rebuild than Victors and some others. See this thread:

http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... reproducer

I don't have an F-2, but I expect it has the reproducer with the retaining ring discussed in the thread. Care is needed as I believe these reproducers are made of pot metal, which is a bit fragile as noted in the thread. And as you'll see from the thread some inventiveness is needed to get around the fact that you are not likely to find the special tool that would have been used a century ago to remove the retaining rings.

I just send mine off to be restored. It would likely run you about $50 to $75.

Clay

I have a Waters Conley Phonola portable machine that had a stiff tone arm in the left to right direction.

The only way I was able to correct it, was to lap the joint where it pivoted. As I recall, I used oil and toothpaste (which is fine rubbing compound). I did this in fairly small increments until it freed up, then made sure that I cleaned it all out and re-lubed it.

It has been fine ever since.