Phonoland

I have a HMV No.4 soundbox which I'm going to restore, can anyone tell me how do I get the black beeswax needed to seal around the needle arm?
Cheers

jakub76,

From bees!


Just kidding. APSCO sells kits to rebuild VTMCo. Exhib. & No.2 Sound-Boxes which come with wx.
I can't locate their hardcopy catalogue right now but I do think they also sell the wax separately. I have two HMV No.4's they are fantastic Sound-Boxes!
I have a friend in Australia-I've dropped him a note to see if he has a suppler nearer to you.

Regards,
J.

YOU DON'T NEED ANY SPECIAL REPAIR KITS!

If you go to any of your local shops which sell small blocks of Beeswax in packets (repair sticks) for furniture etc, that'll do just fine.

They are usually available in different colours / shades and black.

Slice a small strip off with a knife and roll it into a nice sherical shape between thumb and fore-finger - the soft beeswax should easily be moulded in your fingers.

Position the "ball" onto the end of the stylus bar screw and heat up the tip of a screwdriver and simply "touch" the wax and it'll nicely melt around the end join sealing the area as original. Don't worry if it doesn't look too neat the first time you do it - you can easily remove / tidy it up but laying a small piece of tissue over the wax and applying the heated screwdriver tip to the paper thus melting wax thro' paper and it will be absorbed into it leaving the mica clean again.

Jakub,

I haven't heard back from my Aussie friend, however another good friend told me that bee's wax can be found in many better fabric/sewing supply stores.

Regards,
J.

P.S. I still can't locate my APSCO "hardcopy" catalogue to verify whether they do offer the bee's wax sans kit. (I'm fairly certain they do.)

Thanks Steve, thanks Neophone.
I will pick up a dark furniture wax stick and give it a go. My No.4 soundbox is currently original and sounding really good and super loud. Do you think I should bother refurbishing it? I reckon the rubber gaskets would have to be perished but, if it ain't broken...

What do you guys think?
Cheers,
Jakub76

Jakub,

How bad are the gaskets? Can you press your thumbnail into the gaskets? It's a tough call, you say it sounds fine-but how much better would it sound with new gaskets?

Regards,
J.

Jakub,

Irrespective of how soft the original red gasket ring still might be, I would definitely recommend refurbishing this soundbox with ORDINARY soft rubber gasket material. I've found that ridding the box of the original type (even new replacements!) gasket ring and utilising the very softest material available, has transformed my No. 4's into Orthophonic territory!

It depends on what the machine is, how much you use it and what records you generally play on it as to whether you should bother to do anything at all. From a historic and "collector" perspective, the original gasket type may be important but for listening (especially for any length of time) I would definitely consider changing it altogether.

Steve