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Vintage Tape (Audio), Cassette, Wire and Magnetic Disc Recorders and Players Open-reel tape recorders, cassette recorders, 8-track players etc.

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Old 7th Oct 2019, 11:37 am   #61
Volatile
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Default Re: Thermionic Soundmirror

There is no bearing, it's just a post that goes through the pinch roller and is held in the bracket with the spring , indents at each end of the post that the spring locks into

On a side note, I ordered an Acos 22 mic complete with tabletop stand to go with this machine, it just arrived at work today
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Old 7th Oct 2019, 1:46 pm   #62
TIMTAPE
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Default Re: Thermionic Soundmirror

Quote:
Originally Posted by Volatile View Post
There is no bearing, it's just a post that goes through the pinch roller and is held in the bracket with the spring , indents at each end of the post that the spring locks into
Sounds like a Tandberg pinch roller system. Here's a couple of them I found in my spare parts drawer, complete with the axles. With some luck, a Tandberg part might be useable in the Soundmirror, or with a little modification. I think I've seen complete new Tandberg rollers for sale on the well known auction site.

If you look carefully at the right roller you might see that the rubber on it is actually three industrial O-rings which I experimented with many years ago. As I recall it worked well although not as good as the real thing.
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Old 7th Oct 2019, 2:11 pm   #63
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Default Re: Thermionic Soundmirror

Look very similar to me, il aquire one and try it
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Old 7th Oct 2019, 3:16 pm   #64
TIMTAPE
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Default Re: Thermionic Soundmirror

Would you like some more accurate measurements before you do? Maybe someone over your way has an old Tandberg roller which you could compare. I live in OZ!

Tim.
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Old 7th Oct 2019, 5:37 pm   #65
barrymagrec
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Default Re: Thermionic Soundmirror

Given that the Tandberg roller is likely to be metric and the Soundmirror imperial I would think that although they may be similar they won`t be close enough to work well. You may be able to adapt the Tandberg roller slightly though.

I could easily be wrong....
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Old 7th Oct 2019, 5:57 pm   #66
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Default Re: Thermionic Soundmirror

I do have a friend who I may be able to look at their machine
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Old 25th Oct 2019, 5:25 pm   #67
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Default Re: Thermionic Soundmirror

I went to have a look at this machine the other day. It's completely original inside, with just the motor mounting grommets having been replaced with chassis grommets at some time in the recent past. Without removing either of the chassis, it looked as far as I could see as though all the components, including capacitors, were original.

It's hard to believe that components such as grid coupling capacitors won't have at least some amount of leakage after this amount of time, but to make tests and replace would involve complete dismantling and removal of the main chassis, which wasn't possible with limited space and lighting at the OP's house. The inside of the cabinet has 70 odd years of dust and muck in it, so would need to have the two chassis removed and be taken outside for a good blow out with the air blower, again, not something that could easily be done at the house. It has to be said that the recorder works extremely well as it is with good clear audio. The OP is happy with the way it works and likes to keep with originality, which I have to agree with, although with certain coupling capacitors, I feel that there will be some long term risk with leaving them unchecked. I've explained the situation to the OP, although he told me that it had once been left on all night with no apparent problems, so those 6SN7 valves are tough old things!

There's certain things about this machine that lead me to believe that it's seen very few hours use in its life and has been stored in favourable conditions. The OP and myself both agree that the tape spools and the paper tape on them are the original ones supplied with the machine and quite probably the only tape ever used with it, and the recordings made on it were probably made when the machine was new. The main recording could be quite interesting, as it's obviously been recorded 'live' by the original owner and is likely to be of himself. It sounds like a professional broadcaster talking about WW11 events and could be taken for a radio broadcast, except that there's no background noise of reception hiss or room resonance etc., which would be heard when recordings are made from a radio with a microphone. I believe that the recording is a live recording made by the first owner of the machine and 'could' be of someone very well known at the time. I've got some 78rpm records of this type of narration, but it's definitely not a recording from a gramophone record or radiogram due to there being no hiss or crackle on the recording. We believe it's the owner of the machine who's made the recording due to there being, what you might say are some 'messing about recordings' earlier on the tape, made by the same person with a woman, possibly his wife, daughter or a friend. I've suggested that he digitizes these recordings and puts them on YouTube, as he has already done with one of his wire recordings. I've said to him that the title of the recording needs careful wording so that people searching for such things would be able to find it. I think that just listing as Soundmirror etc., wouldn't perhaps reach the required audience, but it's up to him what he decides to do and how he decides to do it.

These machines are certainly a piece of furniture and very much like a small radiogram with the felt lined lid and front opening doors. These must have been a revelation to their first owners in that they could make a live recording with no surface noise or crackle. I've never seen or worked on one of these before, but I do remember reading about them in a library book as a youngster.

One strange thing is that that although the top plate appears to be missing on this machine, the joy stick control has it's description plate mounted on what would be the under plate - is this how they were? It would make one think that perhaps there never was a top plate, but another machine pictured recently, clearly shows a top cover plate with no descriptive plate fitted around the joy stick control knob. I also noted that there was a slight outline on the woodwork of the OP's machine that indicated that there was something else fitted such as a top cover plate at some time in the past, also the head cover doesn't sit properly as it stands. I understand that Kalee20 is possibly looking out a top cover plate for the OP.
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Old 25th Oct 2019, 7:25 pm   #68
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Default Re: Thermionic Soundmirror

Well, that's baffling! The presence of the joystick plate, by itself!

The cover plate on mine is not flat, but slightly dished at the edges. As the mechanics chassis sits proud of the woodwork by the thickness of the chassis steel, the cover plate (also steel, but stove enamelled) needs this slight dishing to not leave an unsightly gap all around the edges.

That means that all round, there is a slight witness mark about 3/16" away from the steel chassis on the woodwork varnish, where the dishing of the cover plate has pressed onto the woodwork. From the photos, it does look as if this is present (most visible at the corners). So the cover plate must have been present at some time.

That being so, where is it now - and how come the joystick bezel (which is glued to the cover plate) has found its way onto the steel chassis?
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Old 26th Oct 2019, 8:21 am   #69
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Default Re: Thermionic Soundmirror

The joy-stick plate should be on the deck-mask; I guess someone chose to run the machine without deck-mask (easier access to the drive belt?), removed and glued the joy-stick plate to the deck plate. Professional sound recordists often threw away head covers to make life easier!
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