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I had to regrease the springs on my portable awhile back, and decided to snap a few pictures. I hope you all enjoy seeing this cute little 2 spring phono motor. anyone ever see one smaller? U.S. penny for scale.

Phonoboy wrote:I had to regrease the springs on my portable awhile back, and decided to snap a few pictures. I hope you all enjoy seeing this cute little 2 spring phono motor. anyone ever see one smaller? U.S. penny for scale.

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Interesting! In which portable is it? Paillard made great motors.

And good soundboxes too... I've owned one Paillard Maestrphonic ans it was great. At some point the seemed to merge with Thorens, for these soundboxes are pretty similar. They used a special copper plate as needebar balance, and I've found this to be adjustable somehow, using the pressure given to the fixing screws as adjustment.

I have its little brother - No. 175 - single spring

Its been driving me mad trying to find a fibre gear [or fibre gear and spindle] since I bought it 4 years ago.

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Cool. I wish you luck on finding the parts you need.

burke wrote: Thu Mar 18, 2021 4:15 pm

Its been driving me mad trying to find a fibre gear [or fibre gear and spindle]

I'm surprised you don't have a source to have these made in USA.
I've had several replacements made here in Australia at a place called Otto Instruments, although I haven't used their service for maybe 15 yrs.

They're a small engineering firm who amongst other things, specialise in restoring speedometers and tachometers from vintage cars, some of which apparently use fibre gears inside them.
I used to simply drop off the old spindle and worn gear, and picked it up with the new cut fibre gear pressed back on the spindle in the correct position.

I think from memory, their website said they restored instruments sent from all over the world, but surely this can't be the only company on the planet capable of remaking fibre gears.

Here's the link to their website...
https://www.ottoinstruments.com.au

[/quote]

I'm surprised you don't have a source to have these made in USA.

I think from memory, their website said they restored instruments sent from all over the world, but surely this can't be the only company on the planet capable of remaking fibre gears.

Here's the link to their website...
https://www.ottoinstruments.com.au
[/quote]

I'm in Canada, but have been looking in the US as well.

Funny - I actually found a 3D print model that is almost exactly what I need. just needs to be scaled down a bit and the centre hole enlarged.

I was just emailing a few online companies to get some quotes.

But I'm going to check out your company in Austria as well. No one has ever suggested looking at a custom car shop before

It may be a bit dear for $90 Paillard portable. If I might be so bold - what was the ballpark cost? And if you'd rather PM me that would be fine.

Thanks

D

Back then they were around $15-20, but now, who knows?
I guess if I needed one now I'd expect to pay maybe $60, but thats just a wild highly uneducated guess. It could be $30 or $160 lol
If you do manage to find another company anywhere else, and get any sort of quote it'd be interesting to know.

Inigo wrote: Mon Nov 04, 2019 4:27 am And good soundboxes too... I've owned one Paillard Maestrphonic ans it was great. At some point the seemed to merge with Thorens, for these soundboxes are pretty similar. They used a special copper plate as needebar balance, and I've found this to be adjustable somehow, using the pressure given to the fixing screws as adjustment.

The Paillard and Thorens families were connected by marriage. Ernest Pailard and Eugene Thorens were brothers-in-law.
Soon after WW2 Paillard took over Thorens, and were themselves eventually taken over by Eumig.

gramophoneshane wrote: Fri Mar 19, 2021 1:06 am Back then they were around $15-20, but now, who knows?
I guess if I needed one now I'd expect to pay maybe $60, but thats just a wild highly uneducated guess. It could be $30 or $160 lol
If you do manage to find another company anywhere else, and get any sort of quote it'd be interesting to know.

If I get any useful result I'll be sure to post.

This fibre gear issue seems to be just that - an issue with no great solution as of yet.