New member restoring a Consolette

Thanks.

One issue that cropped up: the nickel cover that holds the needle bar is a bit loose - it jiggles and I am not sure if it is causing any of the buzzing on very high frequencies.

The other is that I am burning through my initial order of needles like crazy.

One store I frequent lets me pick up albums of 78's for 3/$10. Doesn't matter what the contents are. I found one album with at least a half-dozen 100 y.o. single sided Victrola titles that look practically new. Ave Maria #89107 became a quick favorite. Lots of blues and 30-40's stuff. I also had the consolette come with about 30 records - most of which are Swedish. One album full of 49th State titles (Hawaiian music). None of the later stuff is rare (Andrews Sisters, Guy Lombardo, etc.) and in so-so condition, so I don't care about them so much (so they get played). I have also some Japanese-language 78's from the late 40's-early 50's that won't get played because they are practically new,

I probably have 150+ records at this point, and not a single one is Enrique Caruso. Pity, I wanted to hear him. Looking for some French chanson singers as well.

rworne wrote:Thanks.

One issue that cropped up: the nickel cover that holds the needle bar is a bit loose - it jiggles and I am not sure if it is causing any of the buzzing on very high frequencies.

The other is that I am burning through my initial order of needles like crazy.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "nickel cover that hold the needle bar." Do you mean the two "end caps" that cover the ball bearing area? As seen in the photo of the sound box I provided, the entire front shell of the pot metal sound box is molded in one piece. On early brass examples, there was a cover attached to the front plate, situated over the needle-bar pivot area. Sometimes that's a little loose, and can be stabilized with a small drop of Krazy Glue applied to the area where it touches the front plate.

If you have a chance, please post a photo of the sound box.

In most cases, a slight buzzing on non-worn loud passages or very high frequencies is caused by side-play, which I mentioned above. I'd check for this first. Again, the needle bar should move only in the direction needed to play the record, it should not move or shake, even slightly, if you move it toward the two bearing caps.

Joe

There's no side-to-side movement of the needle. The bearing rebuild fixed that up nicely.

It's (in the photo you provided) the entire yellow colored piece with the teardrop shaped holes. I've attached a photo of mine.

The pot metal back will rotate slightly (1-2mm). I've been cleaning it a lot, because the nickel plating is pitted in certain areas and flaking off in others. I got tired of shaking out nickel flakes that constantly appeared everywhere when handling it. It now no longer flakes bits of metal, but you can see the pitting underneath what's left. The photo really brings it out, but it does not looks as bad in person.

That's the front plate (or outer shell) of the sound box. I've been trying to find some photos that show how an Orthophonic sound box fits together, with all parts shown, but no luck so far. I've supplied a crude drawing, instead:




Basically, the front plate, or front shell, etc. houses the diaphragm, needle-bar, and gaskets. The back plate fits into that, and is secured tightly in place by a threaded ring. The gaskets clamping the edge of the diaphragm are held firmly in place between the front and back plates when the ring is tightened to its max. (A special tool was used at the factory to screw the ring in place.)

You can see the outer ring in this photo showing the sound box's back plate:



Over time, because of pot metal swelling, the threaded ring can become attached to the back plate of the sound box. In some cases, the stress of the swelling causes the ring to break.

The problem is, in order to have an air-tight seal and properly seated diaphragm, the back plate HAS to be situated tightly in place. There should be no movement of the outer shell or the back plate, which can, indeed, cause buzzing, as well as a loss of bass. If you try turning the back plate, to tighten it, it could cause the diaphragm's gaskets to buckle, which could tear or wrinkle the diaphragm.

It's probably best to leave it alone, for now. At some point, though, you might want to send it to someone who specializes in the restoration of Orthophonic sound boxes.

Joe