My (now) working VV 2-55
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2021 6:46 pm
A couple of months ago I came across this Victor Victrola VV 2-55, it was in very rough shape but I only bought it for the Orthophonic reproducer that came with it which was in great shape. This machine was missing its crank and the tone arm bracket had been broken at the neck, most likely from somebody closing the case before storing the reproducer in its cradle. After a couple of weeks of using this reproducer on some of my Orthophonic machines (and after discoverimg that they were just as good after I had done some work on them) it nagged at me that there was a perfectly good machine just sitting there when I could probably be doing something about it.
A friendly fellow from the forum sent me a crank and a tone-arm bracket. I ended up not using that bracket as it was missing the auto-stop arm and it had been repaired and painted a little too bright to match my machine (if anyone needs a 2-55 tonearm it's yours!). I found that supergluing the broken joint on my own tonearm was more than enough to keep the whole thing together. Luckily the break was free of dirt and grime and with the porous nature of white metal there was plenty of material there for the glue to hang on to.
And so last night, whilst plowing through both Alien and Aliens on the TV after my wife had gone to bed, I got out the Gojo and started cleaning and re-greasing everything attached to the motor plate. It was basically black with, I don't know, smoke, soot, something. The whole thing smelled like my grandparent's attic where my grandfather would go to sneak a smoke in the middle of the day. Sounds gross but kind of made me nostalgic.
I waited until morning to make sure that the glue had set (even bits of the platter 'leather' were in need of a glue down) and let the Gojo dry and then reassembled everything. It turns out that I'm missing that tiny little spring that attaches to the tone-arm auto stop lever, the one that keeps the little shoe extended. I'll have to find one of those somewhere. But as soon as I put the reproducer back on the machine and slipped the needle into the receiver I could hear the sound of me tightening the screw coming through the horn and I was so excited. This is the first record that I put on, one of my favorites: Chick Endor singing "Singing In The Bathtub". So happy the machine is working! And I'm keeping it just the way it is. I love them clean but showing their age and their history.
https://youtu.be/K2fghBEqve4
A friendly fellow from the forum sent me a crank and a tone-arm bracket. I ended up not using that bracket as it was missing the auto-stop arm and it had been repaired and painted a little too bright to match my machine (if anyone needs a 2-55 tonearm it's yours!). I found that supergluing the broken joint on my own tonearm was more than enough to keep the whole thing together. Luckily the break was free of dirt and grime and with the porous nature of white metal there was plenty of material there for the glue to hang on to.
And so last night, whilst plowing through both Alien and Aliens on the TV after my wife had gone to bed, I got out the Gojo and started cleaning and re-greasing everything attached to the motor plate. It was basically black with, I don't know, smoke, soot, something. The whole thing smelled like my grandparent's attic where my grandfather would go to sneak a smoke in the middle of the day. Sounds gross but kind of made me nostalgic.
I waited until morning to make sure that the glue had set (even bits of the platter 'leather' were in need of a glue down) and let the Gojo dry and then reassembled everything. It turns out that I'm missing that tiny little spring that attaches to the tone-arm auto stop lever, the one that keeps the little shoe extended. I'll have to find one of those somewhere. But as soon as I put the reproducer back on the machine and slipped the needle into the receiver I could hear the sound of me tightening the screw coming through the horn and I was so excited. This is the first record that I put on, one of my favorites: Chick Endor singing "Singing In The Bathtub". So happy the machine is working! And I'm keeping it just the way it is. I love them clean but showing their age and their history.
https://youtu.be/K2fghBEqve4