The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

The price seems fair, is this a good deal?

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/esd/atq/1791540086.html

$200 is not a lot of money. Columbia used a lot of pot metal in their tone arms and many of them have swollen over the years. If the tone arm does not move freely, chances are you will have bad luck trying to fix it. (I have had many cases of bad luck with stuck columbia tone arms ) As such, good condition tone arms go for a fair amount of money IMHO. I would check that first, the rest is cosmetic or mechanical.

If the machine is in good shape and it speaks to you go for it.

So if that tonearm is in good working order without any cracks it may be
worth it for parts alone? I am not too crazy about the cabinet, it reminds
me of my Starr too much.

Personally, Id stay away from anything pot metal. Even if it seems fine now, it may not be in 5 years time. And having no ball bearings in the arm, it takes more effort for the record to drag the needle across the disc, so you're going to get record wear no matter how good it seems to be.
The only way Id ever buy a machine like that would be if it were a rare and/or fancy model.

It's one of their middle of the road models, $200 is ok if nothing is broken- the motors are good and they have fairly large horns. The tone arm joint that provides the vertical motion can stiffen up but usually still works- the part that really freezes up is where it sockets into the motor board. You've got to take out a set screw and then gently try to separate the arm from the socket, then file down the arm until it fits- and all without breaking anything. If you can do this then you'd have a decent machine, but for my part if I wanted a Grafonola I'd go for one with a fancier case.

If nothing's cracked or broken but the arm joint is tight, you can put it in the freezer for a few hours to separate the parts, then gently use emery cloth to re-size the joint until it moves freely. But I agree; pot metal parts are usually bad news.

gramophoneshane wrote:Personally, Id stay away from anything pot metal. Even if it seems fine now, it may not be in 5 years time....

I posed the question on the old board if swollen pot metal was the result of nature or nurture : nature being the composition of the mix and nurture being the environment/treatment of the metal through time.

I recall that the consensus was nature, if the mix was bad, problems followed. Given the age, anything that was going to swell, would have by now.

My knowledge of metallurgy only goes as far as what galvanic action is so I really don't know if the above is correct or not.

Anyone know?