The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Well, some real nice folks practically donated it to me for just $10 today.
The good news is the motor runs great, it was just abused by being left outside to rust a bit. There is also a mystery tone arm with a good mica. My guess is they had modified it to play
regular 78's at some point. Can anyone tell the brand of the extra tone arm? The cabinet is pretty nice but needs a wood ledge inside to support the motor board. The
grills are missing also of course as previously mentioned. The motor has some
weird metal "tentacles". Are these supposed to be there? They look like
some kind of brake system but it seems overly complicated. The worst news of all
is the diamond tip is totally gone. The diamond holder is there with the string
that attaches to the diaphragm but the tip is flat.

So now I have to figure out if I want to spend the money on a diamond tip or just
turn it into a frankenphone that plays 78's.

Thanks for any info you guys can throw my way.

lol, those tenticles are oil tubes. When you remove the turntable, there are 2 cups that are accessible through the bedplate. You fill them with oil, and the oil travels along the pipes, direct to the bearings at the other end. If you ever remove them, just be careful pulling them out from the bearings, as they have a felt wick in the ends & they tend to be brittle after 90yrs.

gramophoneshane wrote:lol, those tenticles are oil tubes. When you remove the turntable, there are 2 cups that are accessible through the bedplate. You fill them with oil, and the oil travels along the pipes, direct to the bearings at the other end. If you ever remove them, just be careful pulling them out from the bearings, as they have a felt wick in the ends & they tend to be brittle after 90yrs.

Well that makes sense! Geeze, well my brain is pretty confused I guess
since I have never seen a full size Edison motor like this before. I saw one of
the little cups but I was still like: WTF?? I don't see any felts, they
must have rotted away. I sprayed the gears and moving parts with white lithium
grease so the oil tubes are kind of erroneous anyways. Should be good for a while.

Not bad Brad. The tonearm is a random offbrand 1920's one that came off a cheapie phonograph.

SignatureSeriesOwner wrote:Not bad Brad. The tonearm is a random offbrand 1920's one that came off a cheapie phonograph.

Thanks, its hard to go wrong for 10 bucks. I was stoked the motor runs
although I am unable to test the performance on a record yet. If I can get a
deal on an Edison platter and diamond tip I may have a functional diamond disc
machine. First step is to mount the motor board and next will be to see if
I can get the horn/tone arm assembly to track properly. The seller said he used
mahogany to replace some veneer but this looks too light to me. Is this what
unstained mahogany looks like?

Is what?

[quote="antique1973 Is this what
unstained mahogany looks like?[/quote]

Possibly, if it was finished with a clear lacquer or some other colourless finish. The grain of your cabinet looks a little strange to me (for mahogany), but there are many different species of mahogany around the world, so it may be a "foreign" mahogany or a cut I'm not familiar with.
New veneer is often a little bland in comparison to antique veneer which has aged, and came from much bigger older trees than is possible today.
Below are 2 pics of mahogany finished in orange shellac, so this has added a golden colour to the wood.
The first is of my Edison A100, so I assume this is American mahogany?
The second is the lid of an English table radiogram I'm currently working on, and dates from 1960. It appears to be a much lighter shade (pale yellow) than most of the much older English mahogany furniture I've worked on over the years.

Looks like a good restoration project Brad. The diamond disc motors do not sit on a "motor board" as most all machines employ, instead, the cast frame sits on three brackets that fasten to the inside of the cabinet. If you look at the first picture of the motor in your post, there is one of those brackets attached to frame. The two tabs on the opposite side would sit on the same brackets.

It is not too difficult to find replacement brackets, just be aware that there are several different sizes. I believe that within a machine, the three brackets are all the same size.

Back to the motor board: Some DD machines had a wooden frame that sit on top, and screw to, these brackets. Other machines do not. If your model had such a piece, the back rail is sculpted out to allow the horn to move. In some machines, this is made up of two pieces, others a single. Here is a representative picture.

gramophoneshane wrote:[quote="antique1973 Is this what
unstained mahogany looks like?

Possibly, if it was finished with a clear lacquer or some other colourless finish. The grain of your cabinet looks a little strange to me (for mahogany), but there are many different species of mahogany around the world, so it may be a "foreign" mahogany or a cut I'm not familiar with.
New veneer is often a little bland in comparison to antique veneer which has aged, and came from much bigger older trees than is possible today.
Below are 2 pics of mahogany finished in orange shellac, so this has added a golden colour to the wood.
The first is of my Edison A100, so I assume this is American mahogany?
The second is the lid of an English table radiogram I'm currently working on, and dates from 1960. It appears to be a much lighter shade (pale yellow) than most of the much older English mahogany furniture I've worked on over the years.[/quote]


Thanks for the clarification Shane. It does appear to have some kind of
finish on it, maybe a clear coat at least. So from what it sounds like, even if I strip and re-stain with dark stain it probably won't look original. I still like
the cabinet though in any case so I may just work with what I have.

Brad wrote:Looks like a good restoration project Brad. The diamond disc motors do not sit on a "motor board" as most all machines employ, instead, the cast frame sits on three brackets that fasten to the inside of the cabinet. If you look at the first picture of the motor in your post, there is one of those brackets attached to frame. The two tabs on the opposite side would sit on the same brackets.

It is not too difficult to find replacement brackets, just be aware that there are several different sizes. I believe that within a machine, the three brackets are all the same size.

Back to the motor board: Some DD machines had a wooden frame that sit on top, and screw to, these brackets. Other machines do not. If your model had such a piece, the back rail is sculpted out to allow the horn to move. In some machines, this is made up of two pieces, others a single. Here is a representative picture.

Thanks Brad, so I just need a couple more brackets it seems. If mine had that wood frame piece its gone now. I am dealing with basically an empty box at the moment. I am thinking I need to get the tone arm lifter lever in good working order and attach the horn assembly before mounting the motor inside. The lifter shaft is rusted and is not moving smoothly like it should yet. Brad, can I trouble you for a picture of the underside of your motor board? I just want to make sure the myriad of metal parts are where they are supposed to be when I mount the horn back on.