VV 4-7 Wobbly legs repair

[2002too]

I noticed when I cranked my “new” 4-7 that the whole thing twisted back and forth like a 1960’s teenager. This didn’t seem like a good idea, as I recall someone mentioning a need to fix a broken leg on a similar machine, and if I let this slide this seemed like an inevitability here. So I pulled the motor board and stood it on its head to learn there really wasn’t much holding the legs in place more than some dowelling, and two of the four legs were pretty loose. Not loose enough to take off and reglue without tearing the whole thing apart, but too loose to ignore. The problem was poor original construction. The legs were simply not well secured in the first place.

In the photograph you can see several bits of obviously new hardware. The big round head screw is one of four ¾” long ¼”-20 machine screws to replace the four missing ones that probably secure the horn to the bottom of the cabinet. The dark square head would likely be a lag screw afixing the leg assembly to the cabinet box. The shiny hex head is my correction to the original construction, a 2 ½” long ¼” lag screw running through the corner block directly into the leg. There was no provision for this. To do it I had to move the small wood screw below it (maybe a #4 x 3”) from directly centered on the corner block a bit to one side to allow for the lag screw. I don’t know exactly what it was there for, but I wasn’t going to leave it out.

My apologies to the purists. I would not have done this to some rare collectible. But what I now have is a rock solid working machine that I don’t have to worry that it might collapse in a heap some day.

[JerryVan]

You've done a great job!

The four ¼-20 holes were for shipping purposes, to hold the cabinet down to the base of the shipping crate. Once the machine was delivered, the threaded holes' purpose in life had been fulfilled.

[2002too]

Wow! That makes perfect sense., Amazing that you knew that. What I proposed didn’t seem quite right. Thank you.