The magnetized needle bar pivot pins was a bad idea. Looked good on paper - didn't work worth a damn in practice. The idea was that the magnetization was supposed to draw the balls into the tapered race area and keep them tight against the races. In reality, there isn't enough magnetic force to realign the balls when they get out of alignment which WILL happen if the needle bar is hit or shocked in some way. So then the bearing gets loose and the reproducer buzzes and rattles. Then also, guess what happens when you have a source of ground, powderized steel adjacent to a magnetized bearing? Hmmmm?? Yep, steel powder quickly clogs up the bearing, binds it up and stays there. Bottom line - dumb idea. Victor figured this out probably after they had to rebuild a number of these from field complaints. That's why they quit doing it. My advice is to DEmagnetize your ortho pivot pins and assemble the bearing as I've indicated earlier. Use an elastomeric material to make a small packing washer to go between the balls and the outside bearing cap. Works like a charm. Just don't use latex or gum rubber or you'll be redoing it in six months, just like when you use latex or gum rubber in ANYTHING. Greg Bogantz ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob" <rvuill at comcast.net> To: "Antique Phonograph List" <phono-l at oldcrank.org> Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 10:23 AM Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Some questions about Orthophonicreproducers--restorability, reproductions > Hi Walt, > First let me say that I have seen a number of the reproduction brass > orthophonic reproducers that you make on Ron Rosco's phonographs and they > are truly amazing. I just read the write-up on the suitcase orthophonic > reproducer that you currently have on eBay and note that you are able to > remagnitize the needle bar fulcrum and am wondering how you do this. Over > the years I have owned a number of orthophonic phonographs and have had to > replace the ball bearings several times. Years ago I tried to remagnitize > the bar with no success. I left it connected to strong magnets for > months and it wouldn't magnetize. I even bought a tool for magnetizing > and demagnetizing tools and it wouldn't work. As a last resort I tried to > magnetize the ball bearings. This doesn't work either. I assume it's > because they are round and there is no way to create poles on them like a > bar magnet. Unless it's a trade secret, what's the trick to magnetizing > the needle bar fulcrum. > RMV > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Walt" <waltsommers at comcast.net> > To: "'Antique Phonograph List'" <phono-l at oldcrank.org> > Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 8:03 PM > Subject: RE: [Phono-L] Some questions about Orthophonic > reproducers--restorability, reproductions > > > _______________________________________________ > Phono-L mailing list > http://phono-l.oldcrank.org