TL;DR - new & improved video and ‘tl;dr’; quick view of the cabinet, functions, and playback of part of a 12”, early 1920s disc.

Note: “Reddit filters” removed this again… it might be file size? Trying again.

This is probably the most difficult one I’ve done to date, and pretty much one of the most arduous tasks I’ve undertaken. Everything. Almost every… single… thing had to be rebuilt, scrubbed clean, and refinished almost entirely. I feel like I did every one of Victor’s assembly line jobs for these things!

Thank you for stopping, for all of your encouragement along the way, and I hope you have a great day!

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P.S. - I have chosen NOT to complete the exterior finish until I’m ready enough to delve that deeply.

“Lo, Here the Gentle Lark” - Amelita Galli-Curci - Victor Record, No. 74608

Longer version. I made a lot of mistakes. You can see them clearly- some veneer catastrophes, imperfections, et al. You have to look closely for some, not so much for others lmao.

All in all: Hardest one I’ve done. Technically not finished (haven’t done the finish yet), but that’s only because of the condition of the exterior. Absolutely worth the work and grunting! I have chosen NOT to complete the exterior finish until I’m ready enough to delve that deeply. There’s a lot of cracking, and I’d really like for it to look good- so I’m not going to hurry.

Motor is running on 32V with a variac/variable voltage regulator. Light is running on direct outlet 120V shore power.

Even though this is a “throwaway cabinet” in reality, I’m treating it as if it were a real, high end piece that I could severely damage if I eff up. This way, I encourage myself not to eff up lol…

Thank you all for all of the encouragement. I truly mean it. It’s awesome to have you visit, vote, comment, whatever- I’m just glad others can see this cool old thing working again; and the details at that! I still haven’t seen a good Victor ELECTROLA demo (of this and earlier periods) on YT or anywhere really…

Thank you for coming by, and I wish you all a wonderful day.

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Added this source from the previous post:

Adriano Celentano singing "Prisencolinensinainciusol" from TV show "Formula Due (‘Formula 2’)” on RAI- Italian TV, in 1973. Fascinating: he wrote and designed the song to essentially show what English sounds like to non-English speakers- but there’s so much more to it! lol.

I have no idea where else to post this to be honest. I have one that works but needs to be refurbished pretty badly. No clue on the value as I'm wanting to part with it. Two really nice ones are listed on ebay for $900 & $1250. No clue if that's the going rate or not. Outside of ebay, where can I unload this to make sure it goes to someone that will take care of it?

I understand that given its condition, I will not get close to those ebay asking prices. However, I am still curious what the value is since it does still crank and work. Any information would be much appreciated!

So this is my indestructible celluloid record of sweetheart town by Harlan and Stanley on my standard and I gave you the privilege of using my listening tubes to hear and my motor is healthy just incase you critique the rumble it’s because I couldn’t fit the tubes on the phone microphone so I had To put One ear piece to the mic which it also captured a lot of motor noise. It’s just a new belt I applied
To fix fluctuation so it may not be the quietist.

I’ll bet it’s been a lotta years since this thing saw electric light on the inside of it!

Don’t be fooled: looks are deceiving. It looks like everything is working properly, but there’s something in or on the motor that is not allowing it to spin fully when tilted up or down (its axial ‘roll’). The governor (regulator) balls are not spreading, therefore not pushing the disc against the friction leather. Working on all of the above as well as putting everything else back together.

I used the original ceramic and brass light bulb “plug”; I don’t even clean it, and it and all the switches in their Bakelite/original shielding are all fully functional- whether 31V or 120V.

Have a wonderful day, thanks for stopping by, and for being cool! The final is coming soon…

I found a 3 speed Traveler 7053 a a local thrift store today! We cleaned all the dust and grime off of it and plugged it in and it spins but the speaker is just humming at an increasing volume. I am wanting to replace the speaker, wires and any other parts that have modern versions. Any recommendations on where to buy parts like this?

I love testing the limits of this victor radio reproducer.

Not only in decent shape, but I got 3 reproducers and some forbidden long playing needles included

Finished the repaint on the cygnet horn and did some pin striping with a gold leaf marker. I’m not going to lie I’m not a huge fan of it and it’s somewhat a pretty noticeable color change from the brass piece on the horn. Does anyone have any paint suggestions or maybe even pinstripe tape suggestions?

tl;dr - Mistakes made, pitfalls overcome, and lessons learned!

I just wanted to mention something about “refinishing”, restoring, etc., as well.

Please know that everything I’m doing to this and any other machine I’ve worked on pretty much leaves the machine in a “better” state, but will never bring it significant value again, unless restored specifically by the elusive formulae used by Victor itself (which I’m still ‘looking into’).

Its value to me is improved looks and if someone wishes to purchase one from me some day, I will sell it with its “provenance” (the story of how it came to be) and the buyer can choose what they pay or donate based on that.

I do this with the aspirations of hopefully one day becoming even just “close” to what the pros can do! (and sharing in case anyone else wants to do the same!)

Have a wonderful day, and thank you for stopping to look!
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#1 - Veneer repair, particularly in a focal point of a cabinet, is probably best left for the masters- but I’m still gonna keep trying! Honestly, I “GET” it, yet keep doing dumb things (like sandwiching a piece of veneer in between the repair then not cutting the repair piece large enough lol) and know what to do and HOW to do it, but I just haven’t yet found and perfected the specifics. I will. I saw someone have their Brunswick machine’s Circassian Walnut lid repaired, and it looks like nothing happened. Obviously, a master woodworker was able to do it. Eventually I’ll find a way!

#2 - if “inevitability” puts you in a corner, break on through the wall! I figured, “well, I made the main repair, the visible appearance is crap, what do I do? Ahh! Re-veneer!” I used a very similar piece with a grain pattern very similar, and kind of cool because of the branch spot there, which I let the tone arm be the center of!

#3 - when you finally veneer, you must ensure your cuts are 100% straight- FINE LINES- not even a bow or curve, no matter how small-, or it will look like garbage. The last pic is just waiting to be “evened” out with the other sides. I believe I’m just going to strip the remaining shellac off of the horizontal side surfaces (only) and refinish the whole inner compartment.

Hi everyone. An elderly neighbour is downsizing and asked me to see what I could find out about this old Brunswick phonograph.

I don’t have any experience with something like this and all the other phonographs I’ve seen in the past are much taller floor standing models. So my first thought was this might be missing the bottom half, but I have since seen some tabletop models similar to this one online. Could anyone here confirm that this is a tabletop model?

It also appears to be missing the speaker grill cover, but the good thing is it appears to be working ok. We cranked it up and dropped the needle on the record and it actually sounded pretty good.

So if the only missing is the speaker grill, what would a fair value be for something like this? We’re in a midsized town in Southern Ontario, Canada, so probably not a big market for something like this.

Thanks for any advice or information.

I finally managed to open the barrel on the motor I was posting about, I removed the grease chemically, coated it in a film of WD-40, let it dry, put new lithium grease inside of it, then put it all back together.

It runs incredible! Runs as long as my Grafonola 15 that has a 1" wide mainspring of the same length, this one, despite this one being 3/4" (lasts a record and a half).

It came with this Victrola No. 2 soundbox/reproducer that someone fit on with some tape, I gently remelted some of the wax for a better seal at the center of the diaphragm.

It definitely seems too cheap to be legit but sometimes people don’t know..

I also can’t fly. or saim.

tl;dr - Show and tell! I’ve been obsessed with Edison, Victrolas, and the Titanic since i was a very young child/youth. BONUS: Lookit the Cygnet Horn!

I guess the obsession just took some time to come back out!

My Mom (pictured, third drawing lol) found these the other day; she had saved these for me. I’m so glad she did. It brought back a million memories- ones where i actually REMEMBER doing these. Wow. It’s powerful.

Some of these i believe are from 3rd or 4th grade (8,9,10ish?). At that time in my life, three things mattered to me: Edison and his work- i read tons of books, anything phonograph-related (Victrolas), and the memory of souls lost in horrific tragedy on the sea. I read the red Titanic book The Sinking of the Titanic from front to back numerous times at that time.

Anyone else have lifelong obsessions with these?

Have a great day!

\Cannot guarantee historical accuracy of these written statements lmao*

"It's a single barrel Thorens No. 531 portable motor

Grease is really gummed up, but it's completely stuck, WD-40 won't even help.

Does anyone have any advice?"

Update:

I tried heating up the lid after I put it in the freezer, to no avail, also tried to get it unstuck with break cleaner, by soaking it. Also to no avail.

What else should I try?

Update #1-

bare wood: heavy sanding up to 400; “amber (can) for first and few coats; “blond” - looks like honey. Numerous coats; wet sanded up to 1500 and this is the FIRST polish. (BELOW)

Ha! It’s great advice, if you actually follow it… I didn’t even measure AT ALL, and you can guess how that came out! 😂

tl;dr - you chose the “Don’t Measure it at ALL” option, cuz you’re SO SURE of yourself! By the time you realized you messed up -💥BAM💥**!- now you’ve built\* THREE of these! Take notes, measure, and for God’s sake, ensure it fits!* Lmao

Hey, now you’re more experienced*****, and you learned your lesson (hopefully lol), right? RIGHT?! Lmao 😏

I basically and literally built three separate Victrola/Electrola horns because of a simple oversight.

Have a great evening, thanks for coming by to look, and cheers!

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* I MEANT to do that! I was just TEACHING myself what NOT TO DO… 😏🙂😉 NOT! lol

BLUF (bottom line up front): Make sure you measure once, twice, cut, then FIT to ensure it’s as PERFECT as it’s going to get, measure again, then once more for good measure lol… only THEN lol.

LESSON LEARNED: ONE FOR ONE SWAP -OR- you betta check those measurements!

These things could not be more PRECISE in their builds- it’s extraordinarily done, almost perfectly, as if someone had made tens of thousands of them already lmao… mine looks like someone made 3!

I let hubris take the wheel when I pulled the horn, motor, and guts out of the 1917 VE-XVI, the donor to the American Walnut VE-XVII!

I’ll be frank, I tried to cut the VE-XVI’s horn down to size, but nothing could replicate the actual, proper design of the VE-XVII’s horn- specific to IT, and probably to the VV-XVII as well. I’ve never measured, tho 😏.

After thinking about it, I would say measurements are down to a MAX of 1/32” of an inch tolerance ONLY, all around, meaning only two sides can have a max of 1/16” of an inch tolerance at any given time.

The VE-XVII horn is MUCH more compact, narrower, and a GREAT deal smaller than the VE-XVI’s quartersawn oak with LARGER elbow, too!

I will be sanding, shellacking, then reassembling.

*****A super juvenile thought took root, and I went with it, “hey it’s an Electrola with the same motor, same timeframe, and therefore… it’s the SAME HORN and EVERYthing!”

After a long time of not going to any estate sales I finally found one worth going to and I was able to get this amazing Edison Standard with cygnet horn. Even better it had a very nice Model C reproducer hidden inside the case. Sadly someone went bonkers with gold spray paint on the back of the horn and the mounting bracket. It runs really good however, the belt is stapled together so I’ll have to order a new one. Can’t wait to be done with my summer semester so I can get started on stripping down the gold paint and returning it to a nice flat black color. I was also thinking about getting my friend who’s an artist to paint period correct flowers on the inside. I figured since it’s not the original paint what’s the harm? If anyone has done something like that do you have any suggestions for what paint to use?

It's a single barrel Thorens No. 531 portable motor

Grease is really gummed up, but it's completely stuck, WD-40 won't even help.

Does anyone have any advice?

Edit: I made a new post, take a look at that

So I bought this a few weeks ago and I have a vinyl disc that I want to play on here but obviously it won’t fit and I don’t really know what I’m missing, can someone please help me find what I need for it to work!

…annnnnnd took me back to my early childhood when all I could do was walk, hold a piece of Velveeta Cheese°, and feed it to the Victrola god… because… it made all that sound, it MUST be hungry!

This is VV-XI • 341786 G (ca. 1917). First rode in the Subaru in late January 2025. Probably not worth $195- knowing what I know now, I’d probably go $125 or so- unless I really wanted it. It was exactly what I NEEDED, however.

It’s really ‘kind of’ a ‘parter’ with those massive fractures in the walls. The only thing I can think is it got extremely humid and dry over and over or just simply wet. I’ll get to this one’s finish and issues soon.. still ‘tooling’ 😏 my way up with this wood and veneer work! Some of it I know, some I don’t know and am learning lol.

Have a great day, thank you for being you, and I appreciate you stopping by to look 🙂

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For $195, it was a way out of mental torture and anguish that had been plaguing me greatly; my wife was trying to help me overcome… but I was insatiable.

Taking up this ‘work’/hobby and collection has since given me a great deal of motivation to work hard and learn for the sake of not only myself, but also sharing what I learn so others can learn, while helping to fill a deep loss inside of me and help me heal while working on it.

I sincerely believe I did in fact place a piece of Velveeta into the horn of my father’s Victrola°° when I was a kid. His machine was a deep red one that looked like polished stone in the sun- that’s all I can really remember, except he had some weird electric motor thing that went into the crank hole… with ancient cloth wiring is all I can recall.

This experience, coupled with the fact that I was essentially blind to visual details since birth I believe (too early to diagnose, uncorrected, very poor vision), gave me great aural (sound/hearing) happiness, and brightened the world for me- literally.

I’ve since cleaned the motor (I did its 2-spring, double barrel along with my VV-XVIII’s 3-spring, triple-barrel motor) as well as the hardware. I may take this project up next.

° ‘American cheese’- made of oil and emulsifiers… and given the moniker ‘cheese’.

°° the last pic is from an awesome friend (musician- drum/guitar); I think I’ve always related to this lol… I think I was just doing what came naturally I guess lol… percussion moves me!

I'm a really big fan of British records from the 30's so I have never felt luckier.