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

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: https://nilesfilmmuseum.org/?tv=6391263150735360&to=5297718814834688
#SilenfFilm #CharlieChaplin #EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer #Amberola

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!

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.

The builder's plate of #EdisonCylinder #RecordPlayer has been restored to something like its original appearance.
First it needed a good cleaning to get back to nice shiny brass. Then I spraypainted it black. Since the letters are raised, I could sand the paint off of them leaving the black background. A little bit of paint did come off where it wasn't supposed to; a trick I learned from model building is that you can touch up spraypaint by spraying on a piece of cardboard, and brushing from there to the thing you need to touch up. Anyway, it's back on the player now.

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. The recommended technique is to wrap masking tape around it, cut the tape to the length of just one looping, and measure the tape.
It's 16 5/8". On the long end for these things, but apparently within the expected range for an "Edison Home", which this machine is.

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