My First Machine Repaired - A Columbia Grafanola

[digitalbt]

I purchased the graphite powder and bought Vaseline at Walgreens to make my own grease (Tom Edison would be proud). Getting this motor going also required rubber gloves, work gloves, drill bits, vise grips, a vise, a sheet of green felt, an exacto knife, a glue stick (for the new turntable mat) 2 cans of degreaser spray, countless rags, a blow torch, and a drill. The 3rd spring was broken in half so I hired my friends who are small engine mechanics to assist me in getting the barrels open, springs degreased and regreased, heating up the good half of the broken spring and drilling a new hole for the spring to "catch" onto the shaft "button". (are those called arbor hooks?) We miscalculated the spring directions and so after re-assembly spring #2 and #3's center ends both flipped the other direction and made an S. I spent nearly all day today getting those springs turned back around, removed, reloaded, and like to never got them adjusted so they'd catch on those shaft button things. This was a huge pain. Long story short, it was very fulfilling to finally see that motor work again and play a record. To celebrate, I made a video with my iPhone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aMWJ3fpfm0

[barnettrp21122]

Congratulations, and welcome to the board! Anyone's first repair project is always memorable.
Enjoyed the video; the motor seems to run just fine.
Now you'll have to start looking for some vintage acoustic records that will sound more suited to your machine than the 1940's era disc you played. They'll play with less wear and distortion, since they're better matched to the reproducer capabilities.
Here's an example of a common Columbia acoustic (1919)label:

Here's a typical Victor "Bat Wing" label from 1924:

Playing electrically recorded discs (1925 on)requires another type of reproducer-horn setup, and the Columbia Viva-Tonals and Victor Orthophonics are typical model brands. More to collect-yay!

Thanks for posting the video!
Bob