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The less mechanically inclined may find this helpful, before thinking a larger problem is brewing.

I have been playing many cylinders lately and do oil all the moving parts. Or so I thought.

Symptom
Over the past weeks, I began to hear increased "motor" noise while in the 4 minute mode. The sound was not heard in the 2 minute mode.

Affect
Today, while midway through a record the noise increased a bit and the machine began to slow to a stop. I was wound about half way and feared a catastrophic event loomed.

While assessing the situation a decided to see if the 2 minute mode worked. It did, but was slower. I started to let the machine unwind, and as it did, wondered, and had an "Ah ha!" moment. I wiggled the endgate.

Cause
The point of connection between the mandrel and the endgate needed lubrication. Overlooked, it choked up!

Speculation
There must be a bit more drag in the 4 minute mode?

I am very happy that is all it turned out to be.
Also, the increased "motor" noise is completely gone!

James.

My late friend Arthur Pare told me about this.edisonplayer

Good point. Thanks for the reminder. Jerry B.

I use regular oil for the endgate, like everything else on the phonograph.
Harvey Kravitz

It also doesn't hurt a bit to wet the end of your finger with oil and wipe it across the edge of the carriage support. (You know, where the front of the carriage slides. Can't think of a better name for it now.) Really reduces drag on the lead screw, especially if the horn is supported only by the carriage.

Good important point. The part is called the knife edge.
Harvey Kravitz

JerryVan wrote:It also doesn't hurt a bit to wet the end of your finger with oil and wipe it across the edge of the carriage support. (You know, where the front of the carriage slides. Can't think of a better name for it now.) Really reduces drag on the lead screw, especially if the horn is supported only by the carriage.

A small oilcan full of 20W50 motor oil is
kept near the model D machine.

A few drops here and there very regularly keep it
running smoothly and quietly.

The knife edge does get dry and does need a couple
drops of oil put on and wiped across with a finger.

And, as I have expressed here many times before,
I personally think that weighing down the carriage
arm with an unsupported horn of any kind is a rather
bad idea. It just loads down the whole carriage.
Not good. Much better to take the weight off of
the carriage by using a larger horn that hangs from a crane and have the carriage connected to it using
a rubber hose.

Hanging an overhung weight on a cylinder machine
carriage has always been a bad idea. It wears
the guides.

Phonofreak wrote:Good important point. The part is called the knife edge.
Harvey Kravitz

... and I knew that, right up until the time I wanted to type it.

JerryVan wrote:It also doesn't hurt a bit to wet the end of your finger with oil and wipe it across the edge of the carriage support. (You know, where the front of the carriage slides. Can't think of a better name for it now.) Really reduces drag on the lead screw, especially if the horn is supported only by the carriage.

I made the same discovery when salvaging ('restoring' is too lofty a term for the little I did) a long-disused Model B Home. The motor seemed to run well, I had cleaned the surface rust from the straight-edge and the carrier-arm appeared to move freely, but as soon as I lowered the reproducer the speed went down. A film of oil on the straight-edge cured the problem at once.

In James's photograph, I am puzzled by the device which has been inserted between the reproducer (apparently a normal C, H or possibly K) and the horn; it looks like a second reproducer, or at least a second diaphragm contained in a shallow body. What is this?

Oliver Mundy.

Menophanes wrote: In James's photograph, I am puzzled by the device which has been inserted between the reproducer (apparently a normal C, H or possibly K) and the horn; it looks like a second reproducer, or at least a second diaphragm contained in a shallow body. What is this?

Oliver Mundy.

I believe that's an after market volume control.

Andreas