The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

How does this even happen...
I just keep pulling out more, and more exploded spring bits from the middle of this Brunswick spring barrel. I thought maybe I could just find where it broke then tap into it there, looks like a full replacement or a working spring barrel set.
I haven't done a whole ton of these, but this is the worst I've ever seen.

Very dried out grease with too much graphite and an overly tempered spring making it brittle _ maybe too much carbon in it ???

I had a machine a few years ago with a spring like that. Since that machine came out of a barn, it made me wonder if it was a combination of dried up grease and maybe they wound it up or the spring broke when it was very cold outside. I had a spring let go on an Amberola 75 some 40 years ago now and that was really something. When the spring stopped, the whole machine was out in the middle of the room. I doubt it was wound up all the way, but it sure made a LOT of noise!

I've seen that. I think that sometimes, when a fully wound spring breaks, it sends a shockwave through the spring, causing it to shatter. A sudden input of energy can cause brittle fracture, even in some materials not commonly thought of as brittle.

Well, not for a phonograph but for a pocket watch. I was removing the mainspring from the barrel and the spring was fragmented just like that shown in your picture. Old timers would say the watch was struck by lightning, but I think that was more tongue-in-cheek than anything else. I suspect the reason for this catastrophic failure has something to do with the steel not being properly tempered. There could be other reasons as well.

In the last 40 years of doing restoration work, I’ve seen this happen the most on Brunswick phonographs. Whoever supplied their mainsprings had a process which produced significantly brittle steel for springs.
I have had to just replace all of the springs in any Brunswick motor as it’s not a matter of if they will break, it’s when. Probably sooner than later. Replace all of them regardless of how good they look.

Wow - that thing shattered! As several other posters have mentioned, it was probably a combination of dried grease and disuse that contributed to its fate, and that it's a failure that isn't unknown on Brunswick springs. I also agree that it looks like the grease was a little heavy on the graphite. Make sure to get all that sludge cleaned out of there good before re-packing a new spring.

I had one in five pieces once, a Victrola portable spring, but that one is a sprung (a spring in the past tense!)

VanEpsFan1914 wrote: Mon Jun 27, 2022 8:44 pm I had one in five pieces once, a Victrola portable spring, but that one is a sprung (a spring in the past tense!)

Ha!