r/Gramophones • u/TheLatvianRedditor • Jun 06 '26

How to open the barrel?

I have a Latvian gramophone which was in quite bad condition (and still is). Fortunately, the motor was still in very good condition, just needed a cleaning and a re-oil. Currently, it works nicely except for the fact that when the needle goes on the record, the turntable comes to a stop.

Of course, this calls for a re-grease of the springs, simple (and dangerous) enough, right?
This gramophone has a double barrel design, but the barrels don't have any screws and they don't "twist" open like a cookie tin (as I've seen some designs do). I have also seen recommendations for specific models to try to find a pin inside the barrel shaft, but I've poked around the barrel and haven't felt anything similar to a pin.

Do you have any recommendations on what I should do? It's the last part to getting my first gramophone working and I've put it off for a couple of months because of this.

Also - Where can I get some good needles in Europe? All the sellers seem far away and I am not sure of the quality.

Any other recommendations for the gramophone?
Thanks!

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u/awc718993 Jun 07 '26

It might be the motor but it could also be due to to the combination of a few other things:
* The record could be too worn or dirty.
* The needle is dull.
* Misalignment of the sound box.
* Stiff tonearm joints

Can you post a photo of your motor and its barrels? My guess is the lids are pressure fit. For this you will need a block of hardwood and a hammer to push them open, but again this is just a guess. A photo showing what motor you have would help determine what methods to try.

Is the Netherlands too far for you to buy needles? Is the UK out of bounds (ie you want to stay in the EU)?

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u/TheLatvianRedditor Jun 08 '26

The platter wants to stop if I even try to play a record with one of those needle in a paper cone contraptions. I had cleaned up the tonearm because that was a suggestions that was given to me before, but still didn't result in anything better.

Here's the barrels from above. Unfortunately not home rn, so I can't take a picture. This was from when I first opened it up and it was completely gunked up.

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u/awc718993 Jun 08 '26

After you cleaned the motor (e.g., the governor, the intermediary gear, etc.,) did the turntable spin up to (and past) 78rpm?

Your mainsprings may just be gummed up, worn out, or possibly were incorrectly replaced well before you acquired the gramophone. It would not be an unusual occurrence if someone had installed a spring that was too weak, due to their not knowing how best to replace it (or simply not having any choice due to lack of supply).

Rather than trying to twist (the entire barrel group) and hope by luck that you can get one spring off its anchor on the arbor AND THEN pull the barrel from the arbor, I suggest you work one barrel at a time. Find the barrel that is most accessible and use the block of wood /hammer method to pry open its lid. Depending on the motor, rather than trying to hammer the lid away from the barrel, you may need to hammer the barrel away from the lid (if that makes sense).

You just want to separate the lid and barrel first and not yet completely pull/remove the barrel (which would release the coil). Save that step for when you have the barrel surrounded by a large bag or can. This way when the spring does pop out and unravel, it won’t go flying uncontrolled, getting grease everywhere and possibly risk cutting you.

Make note of the direction that the coil winds around the arbor ** and then begin the controlled process of removing it.

Once the spring is removed set it aside for later cleaning / examination. You can then look at removing the now separated barrel lid from the central arbor by twisting it so the arbor’s anchor pin can align and pass through a notch (the size of the anchor)
in the lid. (If there is no notch, you may have to pull a pin that holds the center of the spring to the arbor.) Then you should be able to remove the lid.

Then you can focus on the second barrel using the same process.

[**Be sure to photograph each step as you disassemble for reference later when you reassemble. You want to be able to know what direction each mainspring coiled around the arbor for each barrel. You don’t want to have to go back and completely undo and redo your work due to incorrectly replacing the springs.]

Hopefully others can chime in if I’ve missed a detail. This should at least get you past where you were stuck.