The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I was asked by a friend to repair the tone arm on one of his machines. I am a pretty decent metal worker who can do welding, soldering, and most everything in between, but I need a little advice:

The parts are solid brass. I don't remember what machine it is from, but I think a grafanola portable. They have become separated like in the picture. Originally they were lead soldered together. I could do this again, but I was wondering if there were a better fix? one thought was to use silver solder (really brazing) and put it together like one would do a jewelry repair. The biggest problem is fixturing it so it doesn't move. I could also, as noted, just use standard lead solder as used in electrical work with either a plumber's torch or a heavy duty iron that I have. If I use the jewler's solder, I can pack the other end in clay to pull away any heat that might build up break the joint where the reproducer is mounted. worst case, if that comes off from the heat, I could clean it up and silver braze it in place too.

Has anyone gone through with this, and what do you recommend?

Many jewelers have laser welders that are capable of very fine work.

So no one has attempted repairs on these??? I will try the silver brazing and get back with y'all. I can't see why you would use just lead solder if you could make it stronger.

Should do the trick with brass. If you don't feel confident yourself, take it to a brass instrument repair person; they do this kind of work all the time. (You should see the condition of those marching instruments after football season!)

I imagine this was originally done with lead because it takes a little less skill and requires a little less prep work. just wasn't sure if there was some other reason that I was missing. I noticed this with old radios and guitar amps and the like that most of the time things were done a certain way because that was the cheapest way they could do it at the time. it just so happened that the unique sound from the often substandard components became something that musicians would work with rather than against. I imagine using top quality components and top quality workmanship (like silver brazing brass parts together instead of lead soldering) would have made old phonographs prohibitively expensive at the time.