It was screwed on way to tight. Which meant the stylus could move up and down, but not laterally. It needs to have some slop to follow the groove. So the stylus was riding up the sides of the grooves instead of the trough, "where the sound is". #CylinderPlayer #EdisonCylinder #Amberola

Edison Amberola 30 and a box of cylinders

Music for intermissions in our (free) program of Nickelodeon screenings this Saturday (1:00-4:00), part of our Chaplin Days festival. Full schedule here: nilesfilmmuseum.org?tv=639126315...
#SilenfFilm #CharlieChaplin #EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer #Amberola

One of my favorite possessions...and it works. #Edison #EdisonStandardPhongraph #EdisonCylinder #music #audiophile

A box of Blue Amberol cylinders.

A local record store sometimes leaves out a box of free stuff. Usually it's just crappy records nobody wants. I always look because sometimes there's 78's. Tonight I found a box of Edison Cylinders. I have a player so you can bet I nabbed this.
#RecordPlayer #EdisonCylinder

#DuckTape #EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer belt in action!

First, get a strip of tape twice the width of the belt you need. This belt is 1/4" and they do sell 1/2" duck tape, but I didn't have any, so I had to cut to the right width.

Cut it the length of the belt you need + 1". Cut the away a 1" belt-width section from each end, so that you end up with 1" tabs (on opposite sides).

Now fold the tape in half, working your way along the length of the tape, and attach the tabs to each other. Here's the original leather belt (left) and duck tape belt (right).

You really can fix anything with duck (my mind was blown the day I learned that "duck" is actually the correct name) tape.
The original leather belt for this #EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer broke, and I fixed it, but I want a backup it seems like a good idea to have a backup around.

before: lightly tarnished, paint long gone except for traces

after catsup soak and elbow grease + steel wool

paint it black

since the letters and borders are raised, you can sand the paint off of them, leaving the black background. here it is, restored and reinstalled

The builder's plate of #EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer has been restored to something like its original appearance and reinstalled. Steps described in alt text.

belt with tear

Looks like the #EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer is going to need a new drive belt. To order a replacement the right length, I need to measure the current one. That would be pretty easy if it was already broken, but it's still holding in there, barely, and I don't want to break it just to measure it.

really thin aluminum foil

from a Popeye's sauce packet

To put get the belt pulley of the #EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer to fit on snugly on its shaft, without the set screw that no longer holds, I needed some really thin material to use as a shim. Surplus camera film was too thick but I found some aluminum foil that fits the bill.

It works! #EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer

Some medium format film. If you mess around with antique cameras, not all of your pictures are going to come out. But the film still has uses, like a being recycled as a very thin shim.

I wrapped some film around the shaft and pushed the pulley on. You can see that some of the film was forced out. I'm going to redo this and try to make it come out neater.

This silly little hammer (which actually opens up to expose a bunch of silly little screwdrivers) is just the thing to "gently encourage" parts to fit together.

Sometimes you just have to sleep on a problem.
The pulley fits pretty precisely on the shaft--just loose enough that without the set screw, it can spin.
So I decided to try shimming it on to make a good, non-slipping fit.
#EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer

lightly tarnished brass, with some shadowing around the lettering

While I'm trying to figure out what to do about that screw-hole-threading problem on the #EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer, I might as well work on the aesthetic side of the project. The "patent plate", stamped with the machine's serial number is currently bare but tarnished brass.

The mechanism of this #EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer is mostly working, but the belt pulley just isn't spinning.

shiny again!

the machine itself needs some work, but probably just cleaning up and re-oiling

Ended up looking pretty close to way it left the plant in West Orange, NJ! Now it's at the museum and installed on one of our machines.
#EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer

gnarly old horn

rub catsup on old brass, leave for a few minutes, wipe it off, and it's shiny again

this was a tough case, so I had to go add some of the stuck on gunk with steel wool. the brass ended up pretty shiny thought

next: sanded down the paint on the conical part (it's steel or maybe tin), primered and spray-painted it

Not strictly movie-related, but our museum has a few old record players which I've been restoring.
One #EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer needed a new horn; found one on eBay in fairly rough shape, but with some steel wool, catsup (!), elbow grease, and spray paint, it's looking good now.

Cat listening to phonograph horn.

His master's voice?
(Well, cats don't have masters--I'm head butler at best).
Anyway, I finally got the #EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer/#Phonograph horn bell looking pretty nice.
There were a few rounds of (1) soak in ketchup (this really works), (2) scrub, (3) repeat... to be continued...

before

during

after

Live better through chemistry! You can un-tarnish brass with ketchup!
Now we've got way more than a little bit of tarnish to deal with here, but it's a start.
#RecordPlayer #EdisonCylinder

The brass horn is still pretty corroded, with a big black splotch on the bell, but one part on the rim is shiny now.

A kitchen scrubber and some elbow grease revealed some shiny brass under all that funk on this #EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer horn.

Record player horn. It looks like the bell of a trumpet. It seems to be made of brass, but there's a bunch of black stuff all over it. Might be paint, or it might just be old and funky.

Starting work on another #EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer restoration. We have two of them, but only one (regular) horn between them (another one is in storage, but it's *huge* and kind of impractical to put on display for now). So I picked up another one. It's going to take a little cleaning up!