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This is from some designs I found on the internet on how to make a phonograph. This is the first one using a tuna can. |
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In this phonograph the stylus slides sideways in straight tracks. |
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This is the gear box I made to turn the record. The big gear will hold up the album on the spindle. |
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I decided to put a binder over the shaft and gear for friction. |
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Snipping a hole for the shaft. |
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These just didn't work at all. It made the record wobble and didn't really hold it as the spindle turned. |
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I replaced it with this big wheel. It works great. |
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The gear box uses a worm gear to help the motor turn the record slow enough to sound like the right speed. |
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The whole record would swing around when it started and stopped. There was space by the gear end that caused the slop. |
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I cut some washers from a coffee can lid. |
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I used two to fill in the space. |
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Here is a simple example of a horn and pin player. Its a terrific activity template I used to begin. I didn't make this player though. It does seem like it would be nice for another workshop. What I needed to figure out was the horn/stylus thing: how to make them, how to get them to work. |
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It included a template for the horn to cut out of paper. Once we made one it seemed pretty obvious we just needed to roll paper into a cone shape, we didn't seem to need the template. One important thing to notice is the angle of the pin. I tried it straight up and own and it scrapes and skips. |
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When we first tried it Morgan plucked the cactus needle from Josh's plant. The needle was very thin, like a thick hair. We got the record motor going 'thisway' in the program ( clockwise) and set it to 10 seconds - too short- and then to 60 seconds. I just held it on the record and let it drag. |
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Once we tried the gearing for a while it just didn't seem to work well. It would start and stop with a shudder, and sometimes, because we were using the grey geared motors it would kill the program on the cricket. I believe the reason for this was that the motor actually generates voltage and the cricket has a circuit that protects it from any surge of current back into the cricket. |
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So Morgan and I talked and he suggested the pully as that was just like a belt drive on a real turntable. It absorbed the start and stops well.
I'm using a pencil to hold the horn and to allow it to turn with the record playing. |
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This is the cactus at my house. These are NOT like a hair. They are sharp, and stiff and hurt! |
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I picked this one off with scissors. |
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I put a dab of hot glue on it to hold it in place. |
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Listen. This is using the new cactus stylus. |
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The change here is the diameter of the pully on the spindle ( the axle going through the record) . It was twice as big as the earlier one. This was great because it cut the speed in half, and now I could have the 'setpower' up to 3-4. ( I had it down to 2 with the old pully and that was too week to really turn it off and on easily) |
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I made a contraption to hold the horn the right angle on the record. |
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The pink foam worked great because I could whittle it away until I had the angle right. The other thing to notice is that the horn can swing inward with the stylus' movement on the recording. |
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Here it is starting up and playing. Can you figure out what the recording is here? |
