Rigid Arm Repair

[Phono-Phan]

Does anyone know of a good technique to repair the botched solder repair jobs you see on most Rigid Arm Victor tone arms?
Thanks,
Ken

[TinfoilPhono]

I don't think I've ever seen a rigid arm without a crude solder joint. That makes me wonder if they left the factory that way. Surely not all of them were repaired??

[Curt A]

Does anyone know of a good technique to repair the botched solder repair jobs you see on most Rigid Arm Victor tone arms?
Thanks,
Ken

Re-heat the existing solder with a torch or soldering iron while brushing additional flux on the joint (clean the joint first with alcohol or acetone to remove any grease or oil). This will smooth the solder out and give the finished look that you desire, but avoid overheating the joint or it will come apart completely. If it does come apart, you can clamp it in place to a board while you re-solder it. You can use a rheostat controlled soldering station to adjust the temp of the soldering iron to the point where the solder just starts to melt. If you use a torch, use it sparingly to heat the existing solder.... You can use anti-flux to keep solder from sticking in areas you don't want it to stick or you can buff off the excess solder with a wire brush or buffing wheel on a Dremel, the above instructions depend on how much solder needs to be removed or re-melted.
Curt

[Phonolair]

Hi Ken, good seeing you at Donley's auction.

There's a product called Tech Spray Pro Wick that is used to remove soldered components from circuit boards. But it works well for soaking up any unwanted solder.
Its a fine copper mesh that when put on the unwanted solder and heated with a solder iron will absorbed and hold the solder as it melts before it can flow. Its pretty easy to control how much solder you remove because you're working a small area at a time and you don't have to worry about your joint coming apart unless you want it to.

Larry Crandell

[Phono-Phan]

Thanks for the replies and repair suggestions. I will attempt a repair on one of my arms and see how it goes. I will be picking up another Rigid MS in a week or so and it has the same heavy amount of solder at the tone arm joint. I am hoping to get some time to post the variants of elbows I have also.

Larry, It was great to see you as well. I hope you had a safe ride home. We ran into some heavy storms almost all the way home.

[Phono-Phan]

It was great to finally get around to this back burner repair project. I have a couple of Victor Rigid Arm machines that have had very crude solder jobs done where the tone arm is attached to the pivot piece. I picked the worst one that also had holes drilled in the tone arm and swivel to use a bolt to hold it all together. I was able to heat it up and remove the massive amount of solder. I then had to fill in the holes. The tone arm also was filed flat to fit a large washer that was also used. This caused a large rectangular flat spot. The hardest part was to re-solder it after repairing the holes keeping the tone arm square to the swivel and also in the proper rotational position. I made up some small oak blocks and drilled a hole in it the same diameter of the tone arm and swivel. I cut out a portion of each wood block to cradle it all in a c-clamp for soldering. I wish I had a couple of pictures of the AS FOUND condition for comparison. It was pretty nasty. It took a lot of sanding with 1500 grit sand paper after the initial sanding. When the brass was very smooth, I used the Caswell nickel brush plating kit to finish the job. Looking back, I should have had the swivel piece brazed with some brass to get rid of the circle where the plug was inserted. I will soon have an extra complete Victor MS Rigid Arm back bracket, tone arm, reproducer, elbow, and horn. I plan on posting it in the Yankee Trader section when I finish repairing the swing arm for the reproducer. If someone has a Pre-Dog MS with the "Remove This Plate To Attach Rigid Arm" tag on it, this would be a great enhancement as the Rigid Arm Victors are very scarce and valuable. The MS model is the hardest of the four Victor Rigid Arm models to find and the most valuable. I wish my camera (or the operator) took better pictures. Sometimes it takes great close ups and other times it doesn't.

It is too bad that I have to return to work tomorrow after being off for a little over 2 weeks. It was great to get to some projects I wanted to tackle.

I hope everyone had a Happy New Year!!!

Ken Brekke