The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Do you want to take a good laugh? Just see what I've just made with the aluminium foil that seals the mouth of a just opened new bottle of soluble coffee Nescafé... Just taking patience, time, and while having my morning coffee cup... Only using my fingernails! rotating the plastifird aluminium foil disc between my fingers and shaping it with the fingernails
(Are Phonographs an obsession?)

Now you should try to play it, maybe it sounds good!

Inigo wrote: Sun Oct 20, 2024 3:16 am (Are Phonographs an obsession?)

Maybe I can help explain the situation. It is not really surprising as you have been constantly thinking of materials that could be suitable for diaphragms! This is how great discoveries are made. Even if the Nescafé diaphragm is a bit thin, you have practised your skills and I think you’ve done remarkably well only using your hands without the use of a mould.

That's because I've already made some dozens of them...
I have to learn how to make the spider, using a harder material...
Yet the Exhibition is my Great Pending Subject... I cannot stop thinking about how to improve its sound with small reversible modifications. Not yet totally achieved, though...

For some reason I can never view the sort of attachments that Inigo just posted. If I click on download, nothing seems to happen and if I click on view, I just get a black screen with a triangle with a bar through it.
What am I doing wrong?

"What am I doing wrong?"

Double "left click" the .mp4 file and it should auto play on your default video player. If you are using a MAC you can also look under "downloads" in your Finder. If you are using windows look under downloads in Explorer for an .mp4 file and double click it...

Thanks Curt. I will try that on my desktop machine. I have just been using my iPhone and read that it must be lacking some sort of flash drive, or somesuch thing.

That mp4 video was made with my mobile phone Android camera, using the WhatsApp camera feature, and mp4 is a fairly common video format.
I've just sent the video by email to your address!

I just downloaded it, via Firefox, and it played okay.

Here's what the diaphragm looks like -- I've made similar diaphragms using old disposable aluminum pie plates.