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I started to service my Columbia 9000 portable today after having already heard the familiar sounds
of a main spring in despair when trying carefully to wind the motor.
I then cleaned the case, inside and outside, removed the rusty lock, adjusted the spring lids, discovering four needles made the mechanism to work badly, also causing the lid easily to fall down. Someone had used a tooth pick in the past to try solving the problem without removing the motorboard, not having detected the stuck needles behind the lid stay mechanism. Needles removed, problem solved...

Unscrewed the motorboard screws, put the motorboard on an old newspaper, and allowed the motor to fall into my lap when unscrewing the motor screws,
Grasping the motor, read the number..HMV 270D, had a look at the governor parts, nothing missing or destroyed,( thanks for that)...

Turning the motor around in my hands once again, my eyes fell on an odd mark on top of the steel. What the heck!!
Looking more closely at the mark with a looking glass, I decided the service was over for today.
Shutting the lights off, closing the door to the garage room. Done.

I know I have a superstitious trait, but really?

I wanted to share it, since it really is weird, and the more I look at it, the more I see, like a Rorschack test.

So what do you see here? Just a splash/spot of old grease and oil...OR?

I see:
OV
1071
in a circle.

What is so ominous about that?

-Bill;

I also see OV...and 1071, but when viewing from different angles or at a distance, clearly visible animal and "human" faces also appear to me, sometimes partly covered by the black parts, but still quite easily recognizable, in addition to peculiar shadow/light effects. Maybe not exactly ominous, but for sure weird ( at least to me), since no one apparently has opened this motor since the gramophone was manufactured
I will not remove the splash/spot/mark when servicing the motor, when I continue servicing it today. Whatever force/coincidence (meaningful or not)/synchronicity put it there, I will not disturb it, but leave it in peace.
Photo uploaded of faces I found buried in the splash. One face is more visible when being watched from a distance, like the green circled face, " the face of the snake/worm" which tail ends under the number 71.
Maybe it is on time I take a break from gramophone repairs..

I'm sorry, I guess I'm too rational, lacking imagination, or maybe it's my total lack of an artistic eye, but I don't see anything but the OV 1071 Zooming into the circles I don't see any shapes. If you can recognize any famous or religious faces, maybe you can sell it on eBay for lots of money

Andreas

nostalgia wrote:I also see OV...and 1071, but when viewing from different angles or at a distance, clearly visible animal and "human" faces also appear to me, sometimes partly covered by the black parts, but still quite easily recognizable, in addition to peculiar shadow/light effects. Maybe not exactly ominous, but for sure weird ( at least to me), since no one apparently has opened this motor since the gramophone was manufactured
I will not remove the splash/spot/mark when servicing the motor, when I continue servicing it today. Whatever force/coincidence (meaningful or not)/synchronicity put it there, I will not disturb it, but leave it in peace.
Photo uploaded of faces I found buried in the splash. One face is more visible when being watched from a distance, like the green circled face, " the face of the snake/worm" which tail ends under the number 71.
Maybe it is on time I take a break from gramophone repairs..

Try to avoid breathing in the fumes from whatever cleaning fluid you are using .

Perhaps I'm just fanciful, but I do see what you're describing, and I did right from the start. Looks rather like a cave painting, but I do see it--although I agree that what's really there is something like an OV 1071. Perhaps it's one of those things that don't show up as well in photos?

For that matter, would a marking like "OV 1071" be typical for such a motor? Or is that in itself something peculiar? If it is in fact "1071," it's pretty strange in itself, the way the "71" partly overwrites the "10"--not exactly the sort of utilitarian orthography one would expect in such an application.

I see the face of a dog, with "Tom" underneath it. (and no, I don't drink or use illegal substances!

Barry

Factory QC mark they are often on these motors

I guess you can see anything in anything if you look hard enough - Jesus or the Mona Lisa? You choose

phonosandradios wrote:I guess you can see anything in anything if you look hard enough - Jesus or the Mona Lisa? You choose

Nah, it's clearly the Sphinx.