The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Greetings. I have an Edison Home B with an old 2/4 minute conversion. (I won't post a picture here since I suspect everyone here already knows what that machine looks like.) The motor has been thoroughly cleaned and serviced, and the spring is original. How many 4-minute cylinders should I be able to play on a full winding? And whatever that number is, should I be able to play twice as many 2-minute cylinders?

My single spring Amberola 30 will play 3, 4-minute cylinders when fully wound.

Marc

Usually I wind 6 or 7 times to play a 2 minute record and about 14 or so times to play a 4 minute record. I’ve never really done a complete tear down and cleaning of my Edison machines.

I'm a relatively new owner of a B and mine has a replacement spring in it. I try to avoid fully winding or unwinding it with the thought that I am limiting the stress on it, so I am curious what the feedback is. I think if I did fully wind mine, it would be hard pressed to make it through two four minute recordings, most of which are upwards of 4.5 minutes long.

How do you know the spring is original? Was it based on examination on tear down?

Burt68 wrote: Sat Aug 28, 2021 10:18 pm How do you know the spring is original? Was it based on examination on tear down?

It came out of an attic where it had been sitting for who knows how many decades, and then I did a tear down. Right now I'm getting about 2.5 4-minute cylinders out of a full winding. From dead slack to fully wound takes 33 turns; when it runs down to the point where it stops turning on its own, the spring is still 9-12 turns away from dead slack. (In other words, once it stops, I only have to turn the crank 21-24 times to get it back to fully wound, instead of 33.) It runs really slowly for a while before it stops, too. I think it's underspeed a bit even when mostly wound, and somewhat irregular. I've had some other trouble with this machine of late, too -- either skipping/repeating or playing too slowly and stopping way prematurely, which I have tried to address by adjusting various screws around the spring/half nut. Now I'm in a place where it's not doing either (mostly), but I'm wondering if I might have another issue, too. Thoughts?

Have you tried calibrating to the 160 rpm speed? There are videos showing how (hint: the half screw is to move between the two lines in one minute if in 2 minute mode)

Mine was running fast and it seems to run smoother after proper calibration, kinda like slowing it down gave it more torque.