#edisoncylinder — Public Fediverse posts

Came home and found a box of junk waiting for me on my doorstep, and I'm really happy about it!
#RecordPlayer #CylinderPlayer #EdisonCylinder #Amberola

I've been working on a nother cylinder player with an issue that had me stumped. It had a warble that was a variation in volume. Finally traced it to this screw on the hinge of the reproducer. (The reproducer has the actual stylus, and makes sound by a coupling of the stylus to a diaphragm). 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 so that it can follow the groove. So the stylus was riding up the sides of the grooves instead of the trough, "where the sound is" (cylinder groves are cut with up-and-down oscillations, instead of side-by-side like a mono disk). #CylinderPlayer #EdisonCylinder #Amberola

#DuckTape #EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer belt in action!

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 (sand the ends diagonally, then stick together with thick instant glue), but it's probably going to fail again at some point. I should learn how to work with leather and make a new belt from scratch, but meanwhile it seems like a good idea to have a backup around.

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.

I brought the restored #EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer horn (found on eBay in a sorry state, and gussied up with catsup, steel wool, elbow grease, and spraypaint) to the museum last night to try installing it on one of our machines. Whew, it fits!

With the brass bell of the #EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer cleaned up and shiny, I turned to the cone part, which is just black-painted metal. The old paint was looking pretty crummy, so I sanded it down, masked off the bell with painting tape, primered, and repainted it. Looking pretty nice now if I may say so myself.
Notes in the alt text.

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.
Then I tried getting the really stubborn stuff off with bamboo skewers and various #Dremel attachments.
That worked, but left wavy patterns that I wanted to get rid of.
I tried scrubbing with Brasso. Helped a little, but no big effect, and OMG that stuff smells bad--it's like concentrated cat pee.
Finally tried gently swirling scrubbing with steel wool. That did the trick.

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

It works! #RecordPlayer #Phonograph #EdisonCylinder

I had to pack that spring, test, redisassemble, fiddle with the spring, repack, and repeat more times than I can count. But the #RecordPlayer spring motor is finally running! #Phonograph #EdisonCylinder