The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hello everyone! So my name is Andrew and this is my first post. I am very new to these type of music machines as these were things collected by my dad and his family. Finding this site is great as I have not met anyone thus far that knows anything about these machines. The machine I am currently working on was having a winding issue and after finding this site and watching the videos I took the one apart not having any tension when turned, finding the spring not to be broken, but the inside cylinder tab that connects to it being partially flattened, not allowing for contact into the spring. I read that it is recommended to replace the springs, because as they age they become weaker and do not allow for long running time. Below are the pictures of what I am dealing with. Help with locating these parts/How to do it would be greatly appreciated. The picture of the spring was attached unwound to show how much tension is approximately there. Thank you for any help that can be provided.

Hello and welcome to the forum. A good source for parts and help is Ron Sitko. He has no website but has a telephone number and address in New York. You can find it in the Links Section. I owned a VV IX several years ago.

In the past I have replaced several springs and it is a challenging job. If I need another spring repair, I will contact Ron.

Don

The spring you are showing looks super weak. I'd replace both springs and the governor springs as well if you want to do it once and do it right. New springs pack a lot of tension so if this is your first rodeo I'd go the Sitko route as well.

Overhaul the soundbox or reproducer as well while you are at it. If you are not sure how TMF member MicaMonster aka Wyatt Markus is your guy.

The "inside cylinder tab" is just fine. The flattened part is made that way. The "high" part of the tab hooks into the large end of the pear shaped hole in the spring. Hope you kept track of how the springs were wound before you removed them. In other words, were they wound clockwise or counterclockwise? If you didn't, it's okay, just come back here for help.

If you plan to fix this yourself, I hope you either (1) took a picture of the spring while it was still in the spring barrel, or (2) made note of which way it was wound inside the barrel, since it can be wound back in two different directions (one correct and one wrong). Jerry already covered that in his previous post...

Also, the raised tab on the winding arbor is what holds the spring from slipping and yours needs a little work to make it easier to connect to. The raised front edge needs to have a recess to grip the spring good. This can be done with a hacksaw blade or Dremel tool to make the spring hold. Just make a shallow "slot" (not deep) under the front edge where the red arrow points. Then, when you put the spring back into the barrel, the teardrop shaped hole in the spring will catch better and not slip out in the future... If you are unsure of this process, send the spring barrel and winding shaft to Ron Sitko and he will replace everything correctly...

Andrew,

I very recently replaced my first mainspring (bought from Ron Sitko, 518-371-8549) on a 1915 VV-X upright which probably has an identical mainspring configuration (two mainsprings, two barrels; one mainspring per barrel) to your 1916 VV-IX tabletop. So the learning experience is fresh on my mind. Please refer to my following post:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=44966

Don't panic if you didn't take note of the mainspring direction. Just by looking at the position of the raised tab of the winding arbor the mainspring goes in the COUNTER-CLOCKWISE direction, which is the same direction of the other mainspring.

It's a great messy learning experience to replace the mainspring your self, or you can also send the barrel to Ron Sitko to have him install it.

Hope that helps!

AR

I think the recess in the drive lug is there, just hard to see in the photo.

Just wanted to say thank you to all who responded. No I did not take a look at the spring direction as mentioned in above messages, but will take a look at was sent my way and go from there. Though it may be difficult I would like to do the work myself. So well see how it goes. Will provide an update when I am able to get back to it.