The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I was working on restoring a Edison 4 clip and needed a motor. Found one, got it. and I noticed it was a older model. Saw a 2 clip base that had the bottom so I got that too. Contacted the seller and ordered all of the remaining parts including plate s/n 15537. The lid has a grove in it and is also nailed on.. The bottom is nailed on. I will be putting it together and finding out how to fix the nail holes if I can get them out. I do not want to do more damage to the base and lid. The motor has a cupped lower pulley and a grooved tensioner .. Tom B

Ah, so you got that one... Nice work. I picked one up that I'm working on as well. I'm dealing with the fact that every one of the lids with the "groove" seems to be split at the handle. I have a non grooved lid top on a two clip base as a backup- a woodworker friend of mine is trying to find a proper routing bit to add the groove, and we're also going to look into repairing the other cracked lid.

Then all the oak parts are different colors, so on to that. These earlies certainly seem to be a challenge!

What reproducer do you have with yours? Mine came with one of those oddball first design Model Bs. Common knowledge says it should come with the "Standard Speaker" but the reprint lit I got from Shawn says even a Model C was available for it.

It'll be great to see another one being done.

I guess I'm lucky then, the groved lid on my early two clip Standard #283 has no crack.

Rich Gordon

I got it put together and fired it up. It runs a little noisy but will play a cylinder. I will oil it up. I put a reproduction B on it with fair sounds then switched to a winged C which played better. I found a early winged C in the UK but when I receive the reproducer it will need work. Next week I will check with a antique furniture restorer to see what can be done with the nails in the lid.. Tom B

rgordon939 wrote:I guess I'm lucky then, the groved lid on my early two clip Standard #283 has no crack.

Rich Gordon

Yours has a groove at the bottom, too. Early-early geek stuff!

Maybe "ridge" would be a better term for what I was referring to as a "groove" at the top. And yes, I think you are indeed lucky as all of the ones I've found (admittedly not more than a handful) have been split.

The lid is not split badly but someone made a lousy repair and nailed the lid down. I can pry it up to remove the nails but I might split it then. They should have had duct tape back then Tom B

Here are the updated pictures of the two clip s/n 15537 . I brought another case for it as I repaired the other case and used it for an earlier two clip. This case is about 3/16 wider than my other cases. It also has a grove in the bottom case I have not seen before but I have only seen 10 or 12.

Tom,
You've done an excellent job on this. I do have a historical question that concerns me here. I've never seen a bottom case with a bead between the box and the baseboard before. The top rim of the bottom case seems to have had a groove cut around it (perhaps to imitate a bead?). I'm thinking somebody flipped the bottom case. That could be confirmed by filled screw holes either on the bottom of the ends (2 clip) or on the bottom front and back (4 clip).

I'm not trying to knock your restoration, but I do want to confirm the history of this. I'd hate to see other people altering cases to match something that was somebody's workshop repair rather than a genuine factory variant. With so many of these machines going up on ebay getting parted out, it is getting rather difficult to keep the features straight with the serial numbers. I applaud you in documenting your machines so we can still trace the original features.

Best Regards,
Martin

Martin I will put a couple of cases side by side and compare the height and width. The bottom grove is less in height than the top grove on this case.. It seems to have been done by Edison. I found another case that was about ⅛ inch wider than normal too but no bottom grove. . I had brought a top and it would not fit due to the width and I wanted them to match. I had to buy the bottom to match. This was used on another 2 latch. See my prior posting on the restoration of s/n 6067 suitcase case. I have five 2 and 4 latch standards. A lot are different in the gears and mandrels and cases. That could have been done by repairs though...Do you want the pics posted or PM to you ??? Tom B