So That's Where That Goes ~ Monday, July 03, 2023

This was both an aha monent and a @#!$(& moment. The part on the left is the "half nut" from the #Amberola #RecordPlayer. It rides on the feedscrew and pulls the reproducer/stylus along. On the right is a piece of broken metal I found in the bottom of the case, which I now realize is an extension of the spring-metal strip the half nut is attached to. I think this supposed to give the reproducer a little bounce, and *not* having it is why the stylus is dragging heavily and slowing the whole machine down. This is going to take some thinking.

Getting Some Decent Sound Out ~ Thursday, June 29, 2023

Much better sound out of the Amberola now. Will be better (and louder!) when there's actually a horn attached.

Spare Parts ~

Spare parts for the Amberola arrived today. I ended up with half of another player to get one part but it was cheap, and I guess I can stockpile extra bits. The second picture shows an old (L) and replacement (R) for the key component--if you look closely at the original you can see the mashed gear teeth that were causing problems.

It Lives! ~ Sunday, June 25, 2023

After unpackaing and repacking the main spring more times than I can count, and a lot of futzing with all the gears, the spring motor actually runs now.

Winding Spring Fixed ~ Monday, June 19, 2023

Getting the winding spring off of the #Amberola #RecordPlayer wasn't so hard after all--turned out I happened to have a wrench 3/8" wrench which fit around the rod, and could use that to force it off. I straightened out a bit of the spring and now it fits on like it's supposed to. And, once things are loosened up once and cleaned up, it's not so hard to get the spring on and off--you just have to twist it in the loosening direction to get it to move freely.

The only problem is, now that I've got this put together and attach the crank handle, I'm starting to suspect that I've got the main spring wound the wrong way.

Winding Spring ~

This rod is connects the crank handle of the #Amberola #RecordPlayer to the spring, so that you can wind it up. What looks like threading is actually a spring wrapped around it, which works with that little leverish thing (a pawl) to keep the crank handle from going backwards--when you wind up the spring, you want that energy to be released by running the machine, not by turning the handle back. The spring is supposed have an end sticking out that goes through a hole in the pawl, but it's broken off. I'm attaching a picture of a replacement spring someone is selling for comparison. Hopefully I can get the spring off and just straighten out part of it to replace the broken off bit, and not need to order a replacement.

Spring Repacked ~

I repacked the spring on the Amberola. I used modern grease from the automotive area of a department store instead of the original/authentic mixture of petroleum jelly and graphite that Edison used. When repacking, make sure to wind the spring the correct way.

Here's the spring barrel back together. Life lesson: don't disassemble something the night before you go on a trip, unless you make really good notes about how to put it back together! But I think I've gotten it right. I can twist the big gear to wind it up and it springs back with a lot of force.

Sprong! ~ Friday, June 09, 2023

This is the housing for the spring of our Amberola cylinder record player. I've been very curious to get a look inside, and find out what condition it's in and if any repairs are necessary.

Authorities on the subject of repairing these devices advise caution in opening the spring canisters. Wear goggles and gloves, because springs can be sharp (especially if broken) and can jump out with a lot of force.

I was careful, but nothing exciting happened.

I think the main issue with this spring is that the 100-year old grease has almost solidified. So hopefully a good cleaning and reassembly will get this thing playing tunes again.

Elbow Grease (Cleaning Amberola Parts) ~ Thursday, June 08, 2023

Some parts from our Edison Amberola. The left one as we found them, the two on the right after cleanup (soapy-water+elbow-grease) to strip hardened 100-year-old oil and grease.

They probably haven't looked this shiny since they left the plant in Orange, NJ, in the 19-teens!

Amberola Horn ~ Tuesday, June 06, 2023

The first thing I realized about the Amberola was that it's supposed to have a horn (which goes *inside* of this model), but it didn't. Eventually I snagged one on eBay--and was surprised when it showed up from Prescott, AZ! Turned out that the seller had found it at the same Goodwill! But on inspection, it appeared to not be from the same device, because it had some broken pieces of metal inside, which were *not* broken off from our player. My guess is that the player and the horn came from someone's unfinished restoration project.

That broken bit of metal stuck in the horn came out with a bit of Dremeling, and now it fits our player (a little to tightly--it's supposed to swivel freely--that'll take a little more (careful) grinding to loosen up the fit).

Edison Amberola ~

Way back in Feb Wini sent me this picture from a Goodwill in Prescott, AZ, where she's going to school. A lot of people retire to Prescott... and as a result some interesting stuff ends up in thrift shops there. It's an Edison Amberola cylinder Record Player. I told her to grab it. Restoration is now beginning in earnest!

That wasn't here Monday! ~ Wednesday, May 24, 2023

d20 ~ Wednesday, May 17, 2023

How to make an icosohedron, a.k.a. a 20-sided die, a.k.a. a d20 if you play D&D.

I bought a pack of split 3" wood balls. They are available here; the same product is also on Amazon. Wooden balls in this size are easier to find in split form, and that probably makes the project easier anyway.

Determining the sizes of the faces and edges requires some complicated math. Fortunately, there is an online calculator. The radius of the ball (split or full) that you want to cut the icosohedron out of is the "circumsphere radius", so plug that in, and have it solve for "edge length". Two things to keep in mind are (1) measure the actual radius of the ball, don't just use the nominal radius, and (2) the edge length will be a straight line, not an arc over part of the sphere. So use a tool like a caliper for measurements rather than a measuring tape or tape measure.

On each half ball, find the center ("pole"). Use your caliper to find points one edge-length away from the pole, and draw a circle. Then use the caliper to divide that into 5 equal triangles.

I found it easier to draw straight lines if I held the two halves together as a sphere and look straight at where each line had to go.

Clamp a half-ball into a vice. Put some soft scrap wood around it so the vice doesn't smush it. Then use an electric sander to flatten all the triangles. It's a good idea to get more half ball pieces than you need and do some practice sanding first.

When you've done this for both halves, it's time to glue them together, with the edges of each sides "pentagon" skewed from each other so that we can create a middle row of triangles. Then sand those flat.

Eventually you end up with an icosohedron. You'll probably end up working your way around evening things up for a bit...

Next I stained the wood. A dark stain hid what was left of the lines I'd drawn with a Sharpie--in retrospect I'd recommend just using a pencil!

After staining the wood, there's various ways to add the numbers. I used a gold paint pen. You could try carving them, or using decals, or indenting them with dies, if you want to get fancy.

Next you'll probably want to apply some kind of clear finish, for protection, and just to make it nice and shiny :)

I tried a spraycan of gloss sealant, but it seemed to just soak in and not have much effect, so then I brusehd on some good old-fashioned shellac, and that did the trick.

Some Rustic Buildings ~ Sunday, April 02, 2023

Yesterday we visited Hidden Villa, fed a cow, petted some goats, took, a hike, and saw some neat old modelable farm buildings.

I love that weathering :)

I've been trying 3D photography lately. Here's a tin barn, built in 1901:

Little Free Library: It's Done! ~

After recruiting kids to paint it, it's now insrtalled in front of our church.

It's full of books now. Come check it out!