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Been busy this weekend. Found an empty Columbia Mignon cabinet and a lot of misc. parts.
A couple of the crank handles and tone arms are unidentified. Probably offbrand tonearms and
at least one Brunswick crank I would guess. One of the cranks was a long 9 inch Victor that
is not shown. I already diverted it for a special project. The Ultona has near-mint nickel and
amazingly the reproducer swivels freely. Also an unknown phone tester thing, not sure what I will
do with that.

Anybody happen to have a spare 4 spring Columbia motor, crank, etc? I know its a long shot.
Probably one of those long term projects destined for my storage shed.

It's always nice to have a few spare parts around. You never know when you're going to need them, or when they'll come in handy to swape for something else.
The longest crank shown (on the left) with the fancy knob & metal ball thing next to the knob, looks like a Paillards crank. More than likely it's from a Sonora machine, & judging by the length, from a console model.
It could also be a Brunswick crank. If it's a Brunny, it will have a slotted reverse thread screw to hold the knob on, whereas a Paillard will have a washer that is pressed on & is not removable.

The Mignon cabinet was a great find. I'm sure if someone here doesn't have the correct motor, one will eventually turn up on ebay or somewhere. The other parts shouldn't be as hard to find I'd imagine.
You'll have to do a feature phono on it, once it's complete.

gramophoneshane wrote:It's always nice to have a few spare parts around. You never know when you're going to need them, or when they'll come in handy to swape for something else.
The longest crank shown (on the left) with the fancy knob & metal ball thing next to the knob, looks like a Paillards crank. More than likely it's from a Sonora machine, & judging by the length, from a console model.
It could also be a Brunswick crank. If it's a Brunny, it will have a slotted reverse thread screw to hold the knob on, whereas a Paillard will have a washer that is pressed on & is not removable.

The Mignon cabinet was a great find. I'm sure if someone here doesn't have the correct motor, one will eventually turn up on ebay or somewhere. The other parts shouldn't be as hard to find I'd imagine.
You'll have to do a feature phono on it, once it's complete.

Thanks for the info Shane. Looks like the long crank has a standard type slot screw so it may be a Brunswick. The reproducer is a "Sterling" by the way. Anybody have idea what the two tonearms may go to?

Its kind of crazy odds to find a complete Mignon then an empty one so soon after. The empty one has the original finish
so its quite a bit darker than my complete one. It has more damage issues though, with missing trim pieces. The motor board
is a lucky bonus though. That is one less scarce part to have to find.

I think the 2 tonearms in the last picture are generic arms used on numerous off brand machines.
I've got the bottom arm, which came with a "Polydor Electric" soundbox, and I've seen both arms on various machines that have been posted here before.
I had a quick look through the old "off-brand" thread here on the board, and saw at least 2 machines that appear to have the bottom arm as well (although the pics are pretty small so it's not easy to tell 100%)

http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... =off+brand

If the pot metal in your 2 arms is in good condition, I'm sure you'll have no trouble selling them to someone with an off-brand that has a disintergrating arm.

The top tonearm in the bottom photo is from a Columbia (US-style) Viva-Tonal model. It looks identical, in fact, to this one for sale on eBay --


http://cgi.ebay.com/Columbia-Phonograph ... 0624357002

It's probably from a junior or mid-size cabinet model, such as this 601 --

Ortho_Fan wrote:The top tonearm in the bottom photo is from a Columbia (US-style) Viva-Tonal model. It looks identical, in fact, to this one for sale on eBay --


http://cgi.ebay.com/Columbia-Phonograph ... 0624357002

It's probably from a junior or mid-size cabinet model, such as this 601 --

That's good news, thanks Ortho!

gramophoneshane wrote:I think the 2 tonearms in the last picture are generic arms used on numerous off brand machines.
I've got the bottom arm, which came with a "Polydor Electric" soundbox, and I've seen both arms on various machines that have been posted here before.
I had a quick look through the old "off-brand" thread here on the board, and saw at least 2 machines that appear to have the bottom arm as well (although the pics are pretty small so it's not easy to tell 100%)

http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... =off+brand

If the pot metal in your 2 arms is in good condition, I'm sure you'll have no trouble selling them to someone with an off-brand that has a disintergrating arm.

I forgot about that old thread. Good reference point - thanks!

Ortho_Fan wrote:The top tonearm in the bottom photo is from a Columbia (US-style) Viva-Tonal model. It looks identical, in fact, to this one for sale on eBay --


http://cgi.ebay.com/Columbia-Phonograph ... 0624357002

It's probably from a junior or mid-size cabinet model, such as this 601 --

Ah, of course! I knew I'd seen them pictured somewhere before, but immediately thought "off-brand".
I'm too used to seeing UK Columbias with their plano-reflex arms I guess
I think the only Columbia we got with a similar arm was the 113a (US 160) portable.