The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Naturally I start by refinishing then discover what ever other problems may have occurred. The William and Mary Console is looking pretty good considering what it started like. Now that I am cleaning up the motor and horn for reassembly, I see that the bracket on the lower support for the horn is cracked and the horn is forcing the cast iron piece downward below the break that is held by the support rod. Seems like a lot of pressure there to me. I don't know if there is some way to adjust the two cast iron supports. They seem to be welded to the pipe and onto the horn without adjustment. In all honesty the horn did fall from a couple feet when I had it sitting on a box and it tipped for some reason. It may have broken then, the break looks pretty clean .

I doubt any kind of glue is going to withstand that pressure of the horn bearing the two parts about a ¼ inch apart, one higher than the other. I have had things welded but the one cast iron weld I had done broke before I even got it home.. So much for that. It seems like the lower bracket stabilizes the reproducer? Either way it makes everything hang on the one upper support which I don't think is good. Anyone have any luck with any kind of repairs to a broken cast piece like this. I am assuming I am going to at least have to force the horn in to a slightly tighter shape since it is not lining up with the other part right?

Larry, I think the piece you are talking about should be a very easy piece to find a replacement for, I agree with you on the welding repair, probably wouldn't hold, Bob

Bob,

Thanks for the reply. I do see that its pretty much permanently attached the horn and the support rod. It wouldn't appear to be easily just switched out, although I might be missing something?

Larry

It sounds to me like you'd be better off finding a replacement horn & rod assembly.
You must have knocked something completely out of alignment for the cracked casting not to line up. There shouldn't be any real pressure exerted from the horn on the two brackets. The horn should just sit comfortably between the two brackets when they were soldered to the horn.
You may be able to repair it, but if you dont get everything exactly as it was, you might find the reproducer/stylus is thrown out of alignment.
I've done two horns where the solder on the bottom bracket had broken. The first was unsuccessful because I cleaned the joint & resoldered the bracket, but it must have been about 1mm difference from where the bracket was & where I reattached it.
It doesn't sound like much, but by the time you get up to the reproducer, it puts everything out of alignment. As the reproducer moved across the record, the reproducer was more or less traveling down hill.
The limit pin was sitting in the middle of the loop at the start of a record, but by the end, the pin was almost touching the top of the reproducer body.
The second one worked fine, but only because I didn't clean the joint at all. I just painted the joint with soldering fluid, clamped the bracket to the horn exactly where it was, then heated the joint & it reattached to the horn in it's original position.