The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Got it all back together, it's not quite the sad 2.25 minute machine with a completely destroyed finish it was a month ago.

The Ultona reproducer's been rebuilt, along with new springs for the motor. I'm still leery about over-winding, but it is loosing the pepper on the last couple of groove of 12" records. 10 records are doing great, though.

[youtubehd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFxyyQSll1g[/youtubehd]
I played a 'period appropriate' record last night.

I'm trying to record these using a studio microphone and high quality camera, so the audio should be quite accurate at least in the HD mode on Youtube.

Now I need to scour the catalogs of Pathé and Edison and see what's worth having in those formats!

I'll post a couple of cabinet photos later, after I get in to work. It looks substantially better than it did.

if you've got new springs (presumably more than one) properly installed in the motor, there's really no reason why it should be "losing pepper"... you should easily be able to get through at least two or three 10 inch discs, or a couple of 12" ones. if you're not able, then you either reassembled the motor incorrectly or else you're just not winding it enough.

It was a winding matter. Plus the springs and grease were cold sitting in a UPS box all afternoon, so I was being more conservative than anything else. After about 30 winds this morning it's been handling the 12" stuff just fine.

Its ok to wind it up all the way, just go gentle and be sure to stop as soon as you encounter significant resistance. If the grease is new, this will also help to distribute grease throughout the coils. I generally wind mine fully then after playing a side, I will just wind about 15 turns or so then play another side.

Do you send your motor out for service or did you overhaul it yourself?

Nice Brunswick, the second machine I owned was a 117 in oak.

I had the new motor springs installed for me, and the reproducer rebuilt (could have done that part myself, but I wanted the metals cleaned up too) While that was going on, I tackled the cabinet. Here's the before and almost-finished after:



The grill has been...modified...to look presentable. There were so many missing parts the best I could do was make it symmetrical and put new cloth in again. I'm keeping an eye out for a proper grill, but it's something I can wait for. Oddly enough, and it's not in the photos here, but the curved feet that came with it had two front left feet! There's a marked difference between front and back, and I had two proper back feet, but the fronts were both for the left side. I guess it's not allowed to play dance records.

It's winding well now, been using it a bit tonight. I'm noticing it will randomly slow down a bit, then bring itself back up to speed again. I don't think it's a weight or drag problem, my guess is perhaps the governor? I'm pretty sure it was all properly lubricated, but I'll have to check it again. It may not matter too much for dance style music, but I listen to a lot of classical...and the pitch changes are going to kill me.

adamsih300u wrote:I had the new motor springs installed for me, and the reproducer rebuilt (could have done that part myself, but I wanted the metals cleaned up too) While that was going on, I tackled the cabinet. Here's the before and almost-finished after:


The grill has been...modified...to look presentable. There were so many missing parts the best I could do was make it symmetrical and put new cloth in again. I'm keeping an eye out for a proper grill, but it's something I can wait for. Oddly enough, and it's not in the photos here, but the curved feet that came with it had two front left feet! There's a marked difference between front and back, and I had two proper back feet, but the fronts were both for the left side. I guess it's not allowed to play dance records.

It's winding well now, been using it a bit tonight. I'm noticing it will randomly slow down a bit, then bring itself back up to speed again. I don't think it's a weight or drag problem, my guess is perhaps the governor? I'm pretty sure it was all properly lubricated, but I'll have to check it again. It may not matter too much for dance style music, but I listen to a lot of classical...and the pitch changes are going to kill me.

It might be the governor but this sounds similar to a problem I had with a
Victrola motor a while back. The motor had been serviced but the grease
inside seemed way too thick. After cleaning and re-greasing with lithium/moly
grease the problem was history. Check the governor first though, make sure
the leather pads are oiled and the pivot points.

Brunswick grilles are almost always "toast". I can't think of anyone that sells reproduction ones either. Maybe some of the other guys can help in this respect.

!

Brian Krapes has made replacement grills for me. [email protected]

Also, Brunswick springs lose their tension.

Covah - thanks for the lead, I'll get in touch with home to see what he can do. Also, these are new springs (just installed last week) and they're generally working fine...it's just a momentary drop in RPM and then it comes back up to norm. Hopefully I'll get the motor back out tomorrow and have a look.

Here's a question: I bought soft needles (based on the thought I might try to avoid annoying the neighbors), but the sound seems like it's actually lacking in sharpness of treble- not that it's bad, but I was just curious if medium or loud needles would alter this? Any recommendation on which type to use for electrically recorded disks (I'd read something awhile back, and can't remember which one to use).

Thanks!

Nice machine. I like the before and after pictures of the cabinet.you might get lucky and find the right grille for your machine on ebay.
Harvey Kravitz