Sometimes You can't Put Off Doing Something Any Longer.

[Sean Regan]

I like to play the two jukeboxes I have in our summerhouse, when I'm working in the garden.

This is the younger of the two.
It dates from 1976. They were produced for hotel foyers and high-end bars, where "Silver Age" machines were considered to be out of place. The graphic is a reproduction of Monet's Sunlight Under the Poplars.
I've had it about fifteen years.

Over time, I've had a problem with the carousel motor, running slow, to the extent it would often activate the trip that protects the mechanical side.
I took it out and gave it a bit of a service a few years ago, but it was recently doing it more frequently. It meant that sometimes if the next selection was a couple of dozen records further away in the carousel than the last played, it would stop.

So I "bit the bullet," and took it out this morning. This was no easy task. A question of removing three bolts.
Sounds easy, but it's a nightmare.
It would have been impossible without a set of spinners.

There's no way you could get any sort of regular open-ended or ring spanner on the bolts.


To be able to see anything, the front had to come off. It's just two latches that secures it at the top.
I've added a 60w heater, which gets turned on during the cold months, as these machines, "don't like it cold or damp."

Then the back panel.

This is all you can see.

It was a question of finding the bolts by "feel" and then getting a spinner on them. You have to do this, by lying full-length on the floor. Not too easy when you're 84.

These motors are exceptionally well-made. They had to be, as most jukeboxes in their time were working all day, every day.

There was a lot of scoring on the armature. This happens if dirt gets between the brushes and the armature.

I'd attempted to reduce this on a previous occasion, but it was difficult, so didn't do it that well.
But this time I used a tip given me by another jukebox enthusiast. I put it in my electric drill and then locked the drill in the vice on my bench. Then wrapped a strip of emery paper lengthways around half a pencil. Just a question of turning on the drill and holding the pencil against the armature. A few changes of paper and the job was done in a few minutes. Then I carefully ran the tip of a Stanley knife blade to scrape out a bit of the insulation between the segments, as these need not to be proud of the rest of the armature.


I did connect it up and had it running to check it out before I started to put it back in.
Getting it back into the jukebox is a bigger nightmare, as you're doing it by feel. I put Blu-tac around the bolt and the head of the spinner to stop it falling off. I managed to wedge a Philips head screwdriver through one of the holes in the motor bracket and the jukebox chassis to line it up, So I could screw in the first two bolts.
Sounds easy, but it took me half an hour to get it back in.
Now in perfect working order.
If I'd called out one of the very few jukebox servicing companies, no way would they have wanted it to do it here. They'd want to take it back to their workshop and raise it off the ground to a working height. This would have cost "an arm and a leg."
It cost me 59p for a sheet of emery paper.

 

[Anniekay]

That is a gorgeous machine !!

 

[Sean Regan]

That is a gorgeous machine !!

Thanks for that,

This 468 has 30 x 50/60s pop. 30 x 70/80 pop. 10 x Doo-Wop and 10 x classic standards.

But my Rock-Ola 1969, 443 is my favourite. This has 50 Motown and similar.

The chrome is in excellent condition, though there are two strips at the top and above the graphic that could be buffed up, to remove the scratches, but I can't be bothered.

Graphics on jukeboxes fade over time and go mostly "blue." I was lucky in that I got a "new old stock" replacement from a spares supplier for the other one, shortly after I bought it for just £5.

With this one, I remade the graphic using overlapping A4 coloured acetate sheets, having re-painted the white reflector behind it. The record card insert, which you can remove and replace with the cover of a 45 record, I managed to get from a supplier in America, which had a few left after they bought up the remaining spares when Rock-Ola closed down.


I have these in our front room. Each has three pages of selections, Vintage Pop, Motown and similar, Jazz. Instead of being connected to a jukebox for which they were designed, they select mp3 tracks on playlists on vintage iPods via an adapter, played through my vintage hi-fi.

There's no room left in what was our dining froom in our small semi and has been my "den" for decades. Our lounge is twice the size but my wife wouldn't want them in there. So the jukeboxes have gto live in our summerhouse.

This tape deck I bought recently on eBay for £38. Just needed a new belt, a clean up and a "lube" job. It's about 40 years old. It replaced a similar Sharp deck I bought in 1972, that developed a fault which wasn't worth repairing.

"Little Susanna Hoffs," the lead singer, was 65 earlier this year.

Doesn't time fly?

 

[Anniekay]

You've got all my favorite songs on your machines and what a lovely Japanese influenced garden you have !!

I was drawn immediately to the 443 myself and Tina Turner is one of my favorite singers.

 

[big rockpile]

You had your work cut out for you.

Back in 1970 worked on them and Pinball Machines.

big rockpile

 

[MiTmite9]

I like to play the two jukeboxes I have in our summerhouse, when I'm working in the garden.

This is the younger of the two.
It dates from 1976. They were produced for hotel foyers and high-end bars, where "Silver Age" machines were considered to be out of place. The graphic is a reproduction of Monet's Sunlight Under the Poplars.
I've had it about fifteen years.

Over time, I've had a problem with the carousel motor, running slow, to the extent it would often activate the trip that protects the mechanical side.
I took it out and gave it a bit of a service a few years ago, but it was recently doing it more frequently. It meant that sometimes if the next selection was a couple of dozen records further away in the carousel than the last played, it would stop.

So I "bit the bullet," and took it out this morning. This was no easy task. A question of removing three bolts.
Sounds easy, but it's a nightmare.
It would have been impossible without a set of spinners.

There's no way you could get any sort of regular open-ended or ring spanner on the bolts.


To be able to see anything, the front had to come off. It's just two latches that secures it at the top.
I've added a 60w heater, which gets turned on during the cold months, as these machines, "don't like it cold or damp."

Then the back panel.

This is all you can see.

It was a question of finding the bolts by "feel" and then getting a spinner on them. You have to do this, by lying full-length on the floor. Not too easy when you're 84.

These motors are exceptionally well-made. They had to be, as most jukeboxes in their time were working all day, every day.

There was a lot of scoring on the armature. This happens if dirt gets between the brushes and the armature.

I'd attempted to reduce this on a previous occasion, but it was difficult, so didn't do it that well.
But this time I used a tip given me by another jukebox enthusiast. I put it in my electric drill and then locked the drill in the vice on my bench. Then wrapped a strip of emery paper lengthways around half a pencil. Just a question of turning on the drill and holding the pencil against the armature. A few changes of paper and the job was done in a few minutes. Then I carefully ran the tip of a Stanley knife blade to scrape out a bit of the insulation between the segments, as these need not to be proud of the rest of the armature.


I did connect it up and had it running to check it out before I started to put it back in.
Getting it back into the jukebox is a bigger nightmare, as you're doing it by feel. I put Blu-tac around the bolt and the head of the spinner to stop it falling off. I managed to wedge a Philips head screwdriver through one of the holes in the motor bracket and the jukebox chassis to line it up, So I could screw in the first two bolts.
Sounds easy, but it took me half an hour to get it back in.
Now in perfect working order.
If I'd called out one of the very few jukebox servicing companies, no way would they have wanted it to do it here. They'd want to take it back to their workshop and raise it off the ground to a working height. This would have cost "an arm and a leg."
It cost me 59p for a sheet of emery paper.

Gardens and jukeboxes go together like . . . like . . . help me out here.

 

[Sean Regan]

Gardens and jukeboxes go together like . . . like . . . help me out here.

Help?
Really?

I like to play them when I'm gardening and use is the best form of "preventative maintenance," they don't like not being used. Four motors, lots of open leaf switches and solenoids, need work.
Other time I'll sit down there with a beer and listen to them. Pure nostalgia.

 

[Sean Regan]

I've just found my photo of the flyer produced to promote this model, seems so incongruous now.

.

 

[Sean Regan]

I made another video this evening. This shows how well the motor is now working.
As well as the weight of the carousel, it also has to overcome the friction of the edges of the records, that are only stopped from falling out of the bottom half, by a thin strip of stainless steel which contain them as they rub against it, as the carousel turns.

 

[Sean Regan]

As is often the case, you can solve one problem and then find you've caused another.

I did.

A few days after sorting out the carousel motor, I noticed that some selections weren't being cancelled after playing and when the jukebox had played any selections before it on the carousel, it would play that one again. I noticed the "hammer" that returned the pin was missing it.
I also noticed there was nearly half an inch of play in the carousel. This would affect where the hammers stopped on the wobble plate.
So I slackened off the motor's bolts and pushed it forward a couple of millimetres to better engage the sprocket. This removed the play and the machine was working perfectly again.
"You expect something that's only 47 years old to not give you too much trouble."

As they say, the proof of the pudding.

The ticking noise at the beginning of the video is the clock on the wall.

I'd watched the film Mannequin on TV a week ago. It's a remake of the Ava Garner film, "One Touch of Venus" I've got that on a DVD.

I've seen Mannequin several times and have always liked it. This recording which was used in the film was used to accompany clips of scenes from the film on a YouTube video.
A combination of a good tune and a good film has meant the video has received over forty-five million hits. Or maybe that it was just Kim Cattrall at her best?


I saw there was a copy of the 45rpm record on eBay which was quite cheap. So I said to myself, "What the heck!" and bought it. "It'll stay in this jukebox until it becomes my least favourite," then changed for something else. But that might be for some time.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

"You expect something that's only 47 years old to not give you too much trouble."

Agreed, unless it's a woman (ducks).
Though they were probably building things even more solidly a bit before that.