Does anyone know why my machine might be skipping?

[History101]

Hello! I just purchased my first Edison phonograph. It is a c250 Diamond Disc from (I believe) 1914. It is incredibly beautiful and in perfect condition and it was working perfectly when I bought it. I just picked it up and drove it back to my house, an hour and a half away. I initially tried playing a record once I got the player and a few Edison records unloaded. The record was skipping and sounding overall odd. I quickly stopped playing it and looked for reasons it could be skipping. I couldn't find any and thought it might've been the needle, but that isn't it either. It is sharp still and there's no dust or lint on it. I had also thought it could be the turnable not in proper position as I had taken it off for the drive. I checked and it appears to be in the correct position as well. I let it sit overnight because I read that the oil might've moved or been out of whack since I had to transport it on its side. I tried playing the other side of the same record and that too was skipping. It has been over a day now and I tried to play an entirely different Edison record and it is still skipping and sounding weird. Does anyone know what the issue might be? Any and all help is greatly appreciated!! Thank you!!

[Valecnik]

Hi Congratulations on acquiring a great phono.

 

This is very hard to describe but I'll try.  

 

Your whole horn mechanism pivots on a post.  It is advanced by a fan shaped sort of bar with teeth that moves across a work gear.  On a 250 this will be hidden behind the horn.  You should be able to see it move across the worm gear as the machine plays.  If you put your finger on it you will see it can raised up and down but that it's spring loaded, the amount of tention modulated by a bolt on the post.  You need adjust that spring loaded fan just enough that when the horn is fropped into the play position the teeth catch.  If the adjustment is too low, then you are not able to swing the horn and elbow back to the right after playing.  If you put your hand up above and behind the horn, probabaly with a flash light, you should see what I"m talking about and see how it's held in place.

 

Another problem could be just a very gummy reproducer weight that is not moving freely from left to right.  That's solved by taking the reproducer apart and cleaning it.  To see if that's the problem, with the reproducer raised, put your finger under the limit pin and try to move it from side to side.  If you feel any tention at all, you probably need to do that cleaning first.

 

Others who may be able to describe these adjustments more articulately, please chime in. 

 

[Jerry]

Since it worked well before you loaded it up, let's assume that everything is essentially "okay".  The horn assembly pivots on a post, as was mentioned above. The bottom of the post sits in a socket. The socket is in the cabinet shelf, as seen behind the speaker grill. The whole horn assembly is held in that socket mostly by gravity alone. Turning the cabinet on its side has likely caused the pivot to come out of its socket. Check that out first.

 

When the pivot shaft slips out of place, it sometimes also gets the gears that drive the tone arm across the record misaligned as well. The posting above touches on this point. In the pictures below, you'll see in the top view, the sector gear that drives the horn and tonearm across the record. The bottom side of that sector gear has gear teeth in it. You'll see that if you look underneath, and behind the horn. Those gear teeth need to engage with the teeth on the worm wheel, indicated in the bottom side view. (In the bottom view the sector gear is missing.  It's attached to the horn assembly.) If these two elements are not engaged with one another, you'll need to most likely lift the horn assembly out of its pivot base while moving the sector gear into its proper location, such that it now engages with the teeth of the worm wheel.

 

 

 

 

Here is the pivot base...

 

 

Edited February 6 by Jerry

[History101]

Thank you so much Valecnik for your response! I think I'm going to try cleaning the reproducer and the weight first as there seems to be a bit of tension and then I'm going to try to see if the pivoting mechanism is "out of whack". I'm hoping this is the issue as it sounds easier to locate and fix haha!

Edited February 7 by History101

[History101]

Thank you so much Jerry for your reply!! It was very helpful and informative! I think I am going to check out the pivot and the socket once I clean the reproducer. I am really hoping the problem is with the reproducer as it sounds like less work haha! I don't think the problem is the reproducer though, I think it is the socket as you have mentioned, but its worth a try!! I will let you know what worked!