Friday Score

But there *is* a mechanism to lower the needle gently onto the disk. It is *you*. Those things had a rather extreme stylus force compared to recent ones. A good recent one can operate at as little as one gram of stylus force -- or perhaps even as little as 3/4 gram.

Those old windups had stylus forces measured more in *ounces*. This is why you need to replace steel needles very frequently, because the shellac (not vinyl in those days) rapidly wore down to chisels.

The preferred needle was a cactus needle -- soft enough so it would not kill the record quickly. (The tradeoff was you lost some of the highs, but in those days, there was not as much of an interest in fidelity anyway. :-)

You *really* don't want to use this on any vinyl record -- the forces are too high. (If the record bends a little in your hands, it is vinyl -- if it is stiff, it is shellac, and will break if you add a little more force -- or look at it wrong. :-)

So -- what you have is the way it was designed. The stylus force was needed to mechanically couple the needle to the diaphragm in the end of the arm to produce sound. The rest of the "amplification" was from a long tapered path from the diaphragm through the arm down through the board and out eventually to a grille. No volume control -- on or off. (Unless there are sliding panels in front of the grille. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

Couple weeks ago I picked up a 1/2" bit labeled "union twist drill Canada" in very good condition for $2.00. Nearly needed help to put it in the trunk of the car. The bench top drill press and electric motor attached to it were heavy. The motor drives the step pulley on the spindle over idler pulleys where the belt changes from vertical to horizontal. Feed is by a lever over the top carrying a bearing between collars on the half inch diameter spindle. The chuck is the old type keyless chuck where the spindle pushes against the back of the jaws. No identifying marks on the drill press although the 1/4 HP motor was made by Hoover. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Hoover? Well, that sucks! ;-)

Picture would be worth a thousand words... Seriously, I'd like to see a pic of that if you're able.

Jon

I'll get after the IT support department after he gets home tomorrow and see if I can get some posted Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Dang! Just when I had trained myself to not even slow down for a garage sale, knowing that the probability of anything interesting, let alone a bargain, is minuscule, you come along and show otherwise. Damn you, Jon Anderson, damn you .

Bob

I take it those are your pics in the drop box. There is a very similar one in my dad's basement. His doesn't have the wavy lever on top. It just has a straight bar.

I think that they were sold in the '50s out of the backs of magazines. They came without a motor.

His still works and I still use it when I am out there. I did put a keyed jacobs chuck on it back when I was in high school .

Paul K. Dickman

They're prime time for panhandling - everybody just got paid, and is on the way home from Happy Hour. ;-P

Cheers! Rich

See the drop box under 2_DP Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Around here, nothing appears until 7:59 on Saturday unless it it smaller than 6mo. size. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

(...)

--Winston

Nah, the idea is to be there first thing Friday morning, be it 8 or 9am. If there's something really cool and/or grossly under priced, that when you want to be there. And most of the potential buyers I'm going up against on Friday mornings are older retired folks or soccer moms. Not the type to normally look at tools.

Jon

Y'mean this?

-- You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. --Jack London

Sorry, Brain, but that's an entirely different machine than he posted.

(But, yes, he sucks. 'Twas a good score.)

-- You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. --Jack London

Ah, cool, now I understand. For some reason I just couldn't visualize from the description. I got one of those about half the size of yours, and missing a few parts. So I put a handwheel on the top of the spindle and use it for tapping holes now and then.

Jon

Rather oversized images. :-)

But it appears to have originally been designed for overhead flat belt drive -- which would come down to a pulley on the bench, which would drive the pulley that the existing belt hooked to.

Enjoy, DoN.

Brain???

Hey Larry,

Nope. That's where the motor in pix #4 was made.

Brian.