The Amazing Record Changer By Stromberg Carlson Model 14
Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2017 11:57 am
In a recent trip up to Portland, we acquired this machine with the help of Bryce & Kathleen. This radio/phonograph was born in 1930, making it among the earliest of record changing machines. It seems mechanically simpler compared to the same era Victor changer, but getting it running properly was no easy matter.
Once back home, and getting the record changer out and onto the bench, I discovered that someone had tried to work on it recently with no luck. After many days of adjusting, making a few small parts and freeing up a frozen motor and other stuck parts, I was able to get it operating smoothly. I’ve got to say, this was the toughest record changer I’ve ever worked on, a nightmare of problems, many of them caused by a previous repair person lack of understanding (and mine as well) of how this thing is supposed to cycle.
Anyway, after successfully getting the changer working, I then hauled the radio chassis into my shop (and not an easy thing to handle, since the chassis is huge and weighs about 80 lbs). The chassis is well built, and has a 5 gang tuner. There are 10 tubes, the two audios being 45, and there are two 80's in the power supply. I took the bottom cover off and discovered that someone had done a very good job of replacing some capacitors and resistors. All those new parts were soldered well and neatly dressed and tucked in.
After tweaking the radio, I installed the chassis and speaker back into the cabinet, made all the connections and gave it the initial tests for operability. All systems now seem to work fine.
What got us enthusiastic about this set is the way it changes records. On the left side of the compartment, up to 14 records can be stacked. To start out, there must be one record on the turntable. After play through, the needle reaches the reject groove, and an arm on the left side swings back a little in order to engage the center hole of the record at the top of the left stack. The arm then swings anti-clockwise and slides the engaged record across the bakelite guides until it reaches the spot above the turntable. Once the center hole of the record is aligned with the turntable spindle, the record drops into place. During the last part of the swing and just before the record drops onto the spindle, the record engages a post on the pick-up and pushes the pick-up into the start position, where it touches down on the start groove a moment later. When the last record has played, the left arm swings through its range one last time (without a record) and as it passes over the center of its swing, it engages a switch which shuts the turntable power down. That arm then returns to its rest position at the beginning of the cycle and stops the cycle.
You can view a short video of the change cycle here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqe2JD1xUF0
Below are a few pictures. The first picture is with both doors and lid closed. The second picture shows the radio panel with front doors opened. The third picture shows the record changer.
Once back home, and getting the record changer out and onto the bench, I discovered that someone had tried to work on it recently with no luck. After many days of adjusting, making a few small parts and freeing up a frozen motor and other stuck parts, I was able to get it operating smoothly. I’ve got to say, this was the toughest record changer I’ve ever worked on, a nightmare of problems, many of them caused by a previous repair person lack of understanding (and mine as well) of how this thing is supposed to cycle.
Anyway, after successfully getting the changer working, I then hauled the radio chassis into my shop (and not an easy thing to handle, since the chassis is huge and weighs about 80 lbs). The chassis is well built, and has a 5 gang tuner. There are 10 tubes, the two audios being 45, and there are two 80's in the power supply. I took the bottom cover off and discovered that someone had done a very good job of replacing some capacitors and resistors. All those new parts were soldered well and neatly dressed and tucked in.
After tweaking the radio, I installed the chassis and speaker back into the cabinet, made all the connections and gave it the initial tests for operability. All systems now seem to work fine.
What got us enthusiastic about this set is the way it changes records. On the left side of the compartment, up to 14 records can be stacked. To start out, there must be one record on the turntable. After play through, the needle reaches the reject groove, and an arm on the left side swings back a little in order to engage the center hole of the record at the top of the left stack. The arm then swings anti-clockwise and slides the engaged record across the bakelite guides until it reaches the spot above the turntable. Once the center hole of the record is aligned with the turntable spindle, the record drops into place. During the last part of the swing and just before the record drops onto the spindle, the record engages a post on the pick-up and pushes the pick-up into the start position, where it touches down on the start groove a moment later. When the last record has played, the left arm swings through its range one last time (without a record) and as it passes over the center of its swing, it engages a switch which shuts the turntable power down. That arm then returns to its rest position at the beginning of the cycle and stops the cycle.
You can view a short video of the change cycle here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqe2JD1xUF0
Below are a few pictures. The first picture is with both doors and lid closed. The second picture shows the radio panel with front doors opened. The third picture shows the record changer.
