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Hi,

I recently bought this Columbia phonograph to restore it. The list of things to be done is really long but the price was right. The first thing that grabbed my attention me when I inspected it was those 4 holes on the board. Does anybody knows what are they for? They don't look as wood screw holes and are symmetrical front-back. I'm also considering fabricating a replica of the missing crank. I think that the thread is 5/16 UNC but I cannot compare it to a screw of the same size in this metric part of the world so if somebody can confirm it before I buy the tap I will appreciate it.

Thank you in advance,

Pedro Martinez

Hi Pedro
Good find. I love Graphophones. I am not sure what the holes are , but maybe a previous owner made a frame to support a horn? I have a couple BK's and a BQ, which has the rear horn bracket and support for the horn. I have checked my BK thread and found a nut in my collection of old car parts. I can confirm that it is 5/16", but not UNF, so possibly as you say UNC, the thread is much coarser.
I will send a pm with some dimensions of my winder for your information.
Brian

Thank you very much Brian!

Long time no see on this post!

Finally I sourced all the materials needed to make a winder and start the restoration of this phonograph.

Brian sent me an amazing set of drawings with all the imaginable dimensions. I managed to print them in exact 1:1 size and converted some of the measurements to metric. My "new" lathe (read +40 years old lathe bought for peanuts and restored) and the scratch built milling accessoire came to help to mill the tapered arm handle and bored to accept the shaft. The nut, plug and thick shaft was turned. And voila! All can be assembled only with a press fit. On a later stage it will be soldered for additional strength. Some careful filing blended the two pieces. The arm was bent with the use of a big vice until the graceful curves of the model were met. I was running out of time so I only had some more minutes to start turning the thin shaft. Tomorrow I will turn the wood handle, finish filing the lower part of the arm and solder all the pieces.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Best regrds

Pedro Martínez

Nice work, as always...

Today I managed to do some work during lunchtime.

First I filed the thin end of the arm to make it round. Then I turned a blank of walnut for the handle, matched the color of the case and start lackering it. It still needs a couple of coats. I did a first polish to remove all the scratches. Its pretty accurate! So it's ready to solder but I found that I run out of gas so it will have to wait till this weekend.

Best regards,

Pedro Martínez

Small update. Someone told me that the winder should have a black lacquered finish and have a slightly more spherical shape so I did a second version of it. I soldered all the pieces and a after a polish and a nickel bath it ended like this: Regards,

Pedro Martínez