Columbia 102 - motor running fast

Hi there! I've been 'lurking' on this forum for the past few weeks after purchasing my first portable gramophone recently, a very nice Columbia 102 that I picked up on Ebay for quite a reasonable sum, mainly because it didn't appear to be in especially good condition, with the external fittings all covered with surface rust. I'm quite pleased with the cosmetic restoration I've been able to make to it; between a patent rust-removing solvent called Rustins (picked up from my local ironmonger here in Manchester, UK) and a wire brush, the fittings aren't exactly highly polished, but at last they're bright and clean, and the case was in such good condition that I was able to cover up the few scruffs and scratches it did have with shoe polish. Other than that it certainly plays very well; it comes with the no. 9 soundbox which from my reading ought to date the machine to about 1927, but although I haven't done any work on it, it sounds pretty good to me.

There are a couple of flaws; most notably it sadly came without the record carrier, which puts a dent in its portable credentials; I'd be interested in sourcing a replacement if anyone has one, but recognising the unlikelihood of finding one I'm planning to make a fairly fitting replacement out of some record sleeves and electrical tape. However, the real reason I'm posting today is that I wondered whether anyone might be able to help me with a minor internal problem with the machine. The thing is, the motor runs a little fast relative to the speed selected on the control lever. This really isn't a problem that affects the operation of the machine, since I've used a strobe disc and verified that I can set it to the correct speed simply by pushing the lever about two thirds of the way from '78' to 'slow', but it occurs to me that if I ever had occasion to sell the machine on, it would be good to rectify this.

I haven't opened the machine up yet, which is why I haven't left any photographs to assist the fellow on the thread below who was asking about fitting some of the levers together - if I do go inside I'll try my best to help. But I was wondering whether, if I do decide to have a tinker, anyone could give me a rough guide as to how to fix this. I remember reading something about the machine using some sort of gyroscopic weight system to act as a brake and govern the speed, which I think might have implied that a good starting point would be to grease this part when I get to it, but does anyone know whether it's likely any further mechanical adjustments will be necessary, and if so, roughly what they are?

Thanks to all readers for your time!

Hi David:

Hopefully, one of our UK based hobbyists will spot this. I'm not sure about the Columbia model, but I remember that I had to readjust the speed regulator on my HM V 102 to align it with the 78 (center) position. I remember that it simply involved loosening a screw to detach the speed lever, turning the post until the motor ran at 78, and then reattaching the speed lever.

I also remember that the whole process took quite a while to get everything just right.

JDS

Aha, I see! That makes perfect sense, thank you - it hadn't occurred to me that the solution might be to change the correspondence between the selector and the actual speed, rather than trying to turn down the speed of the motor. I still don't really have a very good idea of how to do this beyond your description, but I'm sure if I have a tinker I should be able to work something out. Thanks again! I'll post back later about how I get on.

Well, Joe, you were quite right. I identified the screw you were talking about without even taking the motor board off, but after fiddling with it a little I ended up in a situation where the motor was running at roughly the right speed, but the regulator didn't actually regulate anything. So I bit the bullet and opened it up, and eventually managed to establish that the problem was that I hadn't quite tightened the screw enough, so the control lever wasn't connecting properly to the underlying mechanism. Once I'd figured that out it was a simple matter of using the strobe disc to determine the correct speed, unscrewing the screw to disengage the lever, setting the lever to '78' and then re-engaging it in the same way. Job done!

I think the moral of the story is that whilst this is not a difficult thing to fix by any means, it's much easier to do it with the motor and board detached from the rest of the machine, because that way you can easily see whether or not the lever is engaged by checking whether the brake pad moves when you push the lever. Also, if (as in my flat) the nearest filament bulb is in a room other than the one you're working in, it's much easier to carry just the motor, board and turntable in there to check the speed, than the fully assembled machine.