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Just brought home a fair Victrola VV 2-55 with an Orthophonic reproducer. This is the first one I've seen with no hint of a crack on the backside. Very cool!

Cliff

They are out there, Cliff. Glad you found one - that's a keeper !

By the way, take note of the small letter "B" under the middle "O" in "Orthophonic" on the back-plate...


So far, I have observed backs plates with: no letter, letter "B", and letter "C".


I have inquired here a couple of times about the significance of this letter, but no one seems to know...

( If they do, they're not talking... )


Frank

The diaphragm looks to be in excellent condition. Unfortunately, I can't play it yet because the needle tightening screw was broken off. Haven't had much success with removing the remains of a broken needle screw. Any ideas?

Cliff

Very nice find. I think alot of it depends on where and how they were stored. Of course as we all know it also depends on the ingredients in the pot metal, some have more lead than others. I often look at these pot metal reproducers and think about the decades, I am wondering when most of them started to break down? was it the 1940's, 50's etc.?

I have no idea if this will work, but I was planning on doing it to a broken thumbscrew I have.

Glu or epoxy a really thin piece of metal, or something similar to what's left of the screw and use that to twist the remaining parts out. I will probably end up using an untwisted paper clip or a kebab stick.

I believe the issue when this happens is that it's not necessarily stuck in there, it's just that you have nothing to grab on to in order to twist it out.

Congratulations by the way on the intact reproducer. I have several of these that came with portables and I have a couple that are rebuilt and I use them on my floor model Orthophonics. They are all without cracks and i have had good luck disassembling them!

CDBPDX wrote:The diaphragm looks to be in excellent condition. Unfortunately, I can't play it yet because the needle tightening screw was broken off. Haven't had much success with removing the remains of a broken needle screw. Any ideas?

Cliff

You could try to make a new slot by tapping a small blade against the broken part of the screw, and then unscrew it. I did that successfully on larger screws, doing it with the tiny needle screw will be challenging, you would need to place the needle holder in a stable base to prevent it from breaking when you tap with the blade. There are some watch repair tools designed for that.

Have you considered taking it to a watch repair person that might know how to take it out.

If there isn't anything clamped in the needle-chuck by the remains of the screw, try backing the screw out with a good jewelers' screw-driver just a tad narrower than the bore of the screw ( check by fitting in another reproducer with the thumbscrew removed ), using a good amount of inward pressure.

If the screw was not cross-threaded, or over-tightened against something in the chuck, hopefully it will back-out to where you can grab it with needle-nose pliers.

Sometimes we get lucky this way...

CDBPDX wrote:Just brought home a fair Victrola VV 2-55 with an Orthophonic reproducer. This is the first one I've seen with no hint of a crack on the backside. Very cool!

Cliff

The most common place to find a crack is the backside

I would first use a punch to make an indent in the broken screw and then drill it out with a small drill bit. Take it slow and you will get good results.