The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi...I'm an artist, music lover, woodworker, student and all around tinkerer. Currently I am building up my woodworking portfolio for a graduate school application. I've decided to produce a gear driven gramophone completely out of wood for one of my pieces. I purchased an arm and diaphragm off of eBay--excuse my wording as I'm not familiar with the lingo--and have milled all of the parts out of hardwood. The horn is in the mold as I type, it was laid up using burlap sack and a fiberglass resin. Here is a short video. More to come shortly. Questions, Comments?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVYzw0Vx77s[/youtube]

Just a few more finishing touches to be done...time was limited.







Thanks
Thad-

Hey, that looks like a great project. And a lot of time has gone into it. It would be great if you could fashion a source of power for the turntable. In keeping with the simplistic materials for the machine what about a weight and pulley system..or if you want to take the easy route an electric motor to drive the mechanism. A great project though and very interesting.
S-B-H

Yeah I have been trying to come up with an adjustable power source. I think Ill add a coiled spring to the underside of the big turn table. With a counter direction wind up and an adjustable mechanism to regulate rate of speed.

Excellent. Welcome to the forum by the way.
S-B-H

I like planetary gears employed on phonographs. How do you reduce the friction between the gear wheels? Here is a full metal historical model of about 1910:

Swing Band Heaven wrote:Hey, that looks like a great project. And a lot of time has gone into it. It would be great if you could fashion a source of power for the turntable. In keeping with the simplistic materials for the machine what about a weight and pulley system..or if you want to take the easy route an electric motor to drive the mechanism. A great project though and very interesting.
S-B-H

Years ago I saw a very old advertisement for Edison phonographs, from the 1880's I think, that actually showed a weight driven model.

Record companies used weight drive for their record cutting lathes until well in the 1930s. Quite probably because the machine ran noise and vibration less, thus not interfering with the delicate cutting process.
So, yes, weight drive looks a good option.

syncopeter wrote:Record companies used weight drive for their record cutting lathes until well in the 1930s.

After that, even. On into the 1950's there were still gravity weight motors being used on 78 rpm cutting lathes. Probably ones that been installed years before.
But, did not Edison use electric motors on his cutters, at some point?


The homemade machine is very interesting. Especially in the use of fiberglass resin for the horn.
Nowdays, one with the skills could try some different things with modern materials. Maybe make a very nice sounding machine. As good or better than machines of old.

How refreshing to see something like this, instead of another horrible crapophone.

For now the gears are not lubricated. Actually maybe slightly. They are made out of cocobolo a pretty oily rosewood so maybe they are self lubricating themselves. The more I use the machine the more fluid it becomes. I think the gears are rubbing themselves to the mesh point. I hand cut all of them and since the tolerances needed to be pretty tight for them to mesh well it was tedious. I ended up having to remake 2 of them because once you carve or cut past the line the gears start to work against themselves and ultimately will bind up. I am thinking that I will add a little grease in the end. I also plan on buying all new bearings as the sawdust has made some of them sluggish.

Here are some of the models:

Wolfe wrote:

The homemade machine is very interesting. Especially in the use of fiberglass resin for the horn.
Nowdays, one with the skills could try some different things with modern materials. Maybe make a very nice sounding machine. As good or better than machines of old.

How refreshing to see something like this, instead of another horrible crapophone.

Thank you...I posted this and then started reading some of the crapophone threads and was like uh oh. I thought I was gonna get razzed for sure. Sounds like a possible business venture...my brother is a sound engineer and audiophile so I think together we could scratch up and engineer a marketable product that works very well.