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A few weeks ago I picked up a Victrola Model IX record player that was made in 1917. The thing had a nice cabinet and appeared to have all the parts. It would wind and play for a few seconds but the sound was nearly non-existant.
Being Mr. fixit, I figured I would have a go at the thing. When I took it home and disassembled it there were a number of obvious problems. The thing is driven by two large springs that were virtually glued together by the 100 year old grease and graphite. The motor was covered in nasty old grease, and all of the seals were rock hard.
After doing some internet research, I started ordering parts. I pulled the motor completely apart and cleaned everything up with gasoline. Replaced all the old grease with new, put it together and the motor ran like a dream.
Next was the sound reproducer (attached to the tone arm) All of the seals were dead on arrival, I removed them, cleaned everything up and waited impatiently for the final repair parts to come today.
The parts came today and I set about rebuilding the reproducer. After about an hour, of tedious work, I had everything back together and wound the old gal up.
I have a very few 78 RPM records, but the one I put on, from 1954, was I'm a Fool to Care, by Les Paul and Mary Ford, and it sounded amazing.
I went into the project knowing absolutely nothing about an antique Victrola but a little research got the old machine going. The web is an amazing place for projects like this.
It is pretty neat to me to know that this unit was playing songs during WWI.
That is totally bad a**!..I would love to have one of those. My grandmother had one in her house but I don't know what happened to it. Brilliant restoration job. Have fun with it.
Thanks for all of the positive feedback. It was a fun project!
Yes there are lots of 78s on ebay, in fact I have a 1914 copy of Its a Long Way to Tipperary coming. The problem with most of the older 78s is that they have been long ruined. With this type of machine, you only use the needle for one play then discard it. Of course, people did not always do that and the result is ruined records. Changing the needles is not that expensive, if bought in bulk, even at today's prices they cost about two to three cents each.
The only tools needed to work on this old player were screwdrivers, and a lot of rags! It is something that most anyone could do with a little help from YouTube videos. It required no previous knowledge or special skills. If you see one laying around in a junk shop, and you feel lucky, go for it!
What a great find Savvy and well done for restoring something back to life. So much more interesting than an electronic music file. I'm quite envious tbh.