The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I got a pretty mouldy orchorsol portable gramophone today that showed up on Facebook Marketplace, after cleaning the case the gramophone came up pretty well, the soundbox was a bit more of a challenge.
The main issue was with the rear flange that is used to attach the rear lifebelt on these soundboxes, although the main body of the soundbox is cast aluminium, this rear flange was pot metal so of course when removing the soundbox from the tonearm for the first time in decades it crumbled into several pieces.

I epoxied the pieces back together, it stood no chance of holding together for its original purpose but it worked as a template to make a new brass piece.
I didn’t have a single piece of brass thick enough for the flange so I opted to solder together a few pieces of thinner brass together, not ideal, but it’s better than pot metal!

With the pieces soldered together I spray painted over the original flange to create a negative of the shape it wants to be
Next followed a lot of lathe work with a lot of measurement checking with callipers, my lathe is a Drummond M Type treadle lathe from the 20s or so, a very fun lathe, but no digital (or analogue) readouts so always pays to have a digital calliper close to hand!
Next is nickel plating to help it look a bit like the original
And done, for now, a lot of work for a small part, the soundbox is rebuilt but the diaphragm is on its way out, it has become very brittle around the outside and I had to patch a section so the diaphragm will need replaced, if anyone has an Orchorsol diaphragm or a parts soundbox please let me know!

Great work! I sincerely admire the dedication and skills required to fabricate parts to bring these machines back to life when replacements are no longer available.

It reminds me of all those derelict steam locomotives rescued and restored to running condition from the Barry scrapyard in South Wales.

Well done Alex! I wish I had your skills - I have an Orchorsol soundbox where the same part looks about to let go...

Cheers!, I must say repairing a derelict locomotive does seem like good fun!

Andy, I still have the lathe tooled up and the original piece for reference, I may be able to make another one or two

I'll email you Alex - and I imagine it would be worth making a few ready for needy owners in future, depending on the price they'd have to be to make it work for you. There do seem to be people out there who go for these soundboxes. I find them very good, but not as fulsome in the bass as EMGs/Experts/Meltropes, although on the other hand I know one Expert Junior owner who likes his Orchorsol soundbox best of all.