February 23, 2025

Spending Time At The Library

I can’t remember when I got the first Seeburg Library Unit or where it came from. I thought Seeburg’s 100 record continuous play 45rpm machine was wonderful. Compact, hours of music. It was used a lot for background music in stores and yes, libraries and very popular in skating rinks where the music could be dialed up and left to play on its own. Seeburg made these in the early 50’s. It’s interesting to see the various mechanism covers that come with them and the coloring of the mechanisms. Most mechs are gray. These Library Units had hideaway-style mechanism covers. Very plain, no medallions. The earliest ones have the 100 Select art deco style mechanism cover. I’ve had one with the light blue plain R cover, another with a pink 222 cover-no medallion, one with a tan V200 mech cover, and V200 mechanism green, um, mechanism. This would seem to span from roughly 1952 to 1959. I don’t know if this indicates any year or Seeburg just used what they had laying around. I’d like to think it roughly corresponds to the year a unit was made but that is another Seeburg mystery.

Years ago I got two Library Units, botyh LU3’s which have the hinged top lid and PA5 preamplifier. I went through both mechanisms and amplifiers. One sat in the spare bedroom on the floor covered and the other on top of one of the large DDS-1 speakers in the dining room as a test unit for amps. One of the cabinets was pretty rough needing a lot of the wood pieces replaced. Because of that I kept the other cabinet empty, in pieces, sitting on its side to use for patterns. I bought a nice used Ryobi router table and reconditioned it with some new pieces. I have wood working in my blood as one grandfather was a carpenter but no real skill at it. However, a router table cuts straight lines and this I could handle, even enjoy. I think the precision appeals to me.

That Library Unit cabinet was always at the end of a long list of projects and work to be done and as such got desultory work here and there. I cut several pieces to size out of hardwood and had done some preliminary routing. ( routering?) Now that I’m moving to Vancouver I have to do something as I intend to take them with me and finish them properly. That something is to completely assemble them to travel. Mike Morton, an old school mate came through for me big time. He was actually a couple grades ahead of me in high school and I doubt we knew each other existed back then. I’ve come to know him over the years though. He lives in Longview and has a deep love for Library Units and jukeboxes as I do. He wanted to know one day if I would like a couple of Library Unit cabinets. “Oh yes, please!” I had visions of not having to resurrect the one cabinet in rough condition.

Mike gave me two Library Unit cabinets, several preamps, and a bunch of miscellaneous parts. One of the cabinets is in extremely good condition and I immediately started swapping any needed parts from the rough cabinet to this one. I re-installed the fluorescent lamp fixture and on/off switch someone had modified, actually got a replacement glass cut and the pull/lock hole drilled at my go-to glass company-Country Glass here in Mesquite. They are my glass heroes for the small jobs they do for me so well and so affordably. One of the cabinets is the older LU2. It had a Lexan piece in place of the glass. I’m hoping their diamond drill will cut one more hole. It didn’t take long to populate the new cabinet and yesterday I hoisted the mechanism off the speaker, where it sat for years, and installed it in its new cabinet. It is now bolted down and ready to move. The older LU2 cabinet is pretty nice as well. I have a mechanism and preamp for it thanks to Mike. It will get assembled and hauled west as well.

And so I dug the router table out and re-familiarized myself with it and where I had left off. Got my trusty Craftsman router bolted down and did some routering for the middle bottom cabinet piece. It connects via slots front and back and holds the two square pieces that constitute the bottom. I’m down to cutting slots. Setting up the slot cutter it looked like the blade was too large. I had to break out the dial calipers ( the good one not the cheap plastic digital) to ascertain that indeed it was almost 20 thousandths too large. Glue could probably make it for it but I wanted a tighter fit. Careful measuring of the slot came to .180. A quick trip to the computer and google and I found I needed a 3/16″ cutter which comes to .187. Another few minutes at Amazon using the very last of my Prime membership will get me the new bit sometime today. I’ll cut two of any of the new pieces I need so that the rough cabinet can be re-assembled and given to a buddy. He would like to have a flip top cabinet. I told him its rough but he would like to give it a go. Hopefully his woodworking skills are much better than mine. I’m still debating just how to finish out the wood on the ones I have.

December 18, 2024

I started the day finishing up the black boxes. I had five that were torn down, inspected and initially tested. I got the sets of boards re-installed back in their cases. I then took ’em out to the test juke to verify they still work. I had to re-connect the DCC. It had been pulled in order to test another that went to a fellow in Michigan. I gave it a quick test to ensure all was good before connecting any of the black boxes for final testing. I connect them one by one and then make “standard” selections. There are four data lines used on the microlog jukes which are any of the ones using a black box. I can make certain selections that test all four lines. 100, 111, 133, and 222. I take it a step further though. I start with 255, it comes up quick and lets me know right away that the juke is gonna select. Then I’ll punch in 244, 222, either 200 or 100, 111, 123, 133, 147, 159, 168, 177. I mix it up sometimes out of boredom more than anything. Start with 266, then the others perhaps one number off at the end. I’m looking for the correct selection to be made but punching the others to make sure each digit gets represented as well as all four data lines.

I did this while tearing down the SMC2 mech for a cleaning. I’d pick a couple numbers with records on them and actually listen to the juke as well as test the black boxes. The jukebox is about half filled with music I enjoy, records I can listen to over and over. As I find other records I add them and eventually get titlestrips printed.

Once done with final testing all that’s left to do is put tamper proof stickers over the two screw holes holding the box together. Then I store them in a locker with the gray boxes that are ready. When they’re sent off I remind the buyer that they are warranted for 30 days as long as the stickers are intact.

I tore down or disassembled the SMC2 mech as I always do. Motor and trip coil come out. I cut the motor wires about half way down their length, cut the black and white trip coil wires leaving less than a 1/16 tag on the end, just enough color to know where they go back to. I took the tonearm assembly out. The limit switches have to come off first. The reed switch used for reject was half broken. I finished breaking it and it was a lot easier to remove. I take it off to keep from desoldering and resoldering the wires to it. Soldering wires to that switch is ticklish. It’s plastic and if the terminal gets too hot the plastic easily melts. It takes a light touch. I’ll install a good used reed switch on re-assembly.

Next up is the record rack. The SMC’s are a pain in the butt because Seeburg used Philips head screws to hold the rack down rather than the hex heads they used since 1948. And they can bind terribly to the pot metal rack. I don’t know what Seeburg used to install them but they are much too tight. I use an impact screwdriver on them. I don’t even screw around anymore to see if they’ll loosen without it. I have had to cut them out a couple times. And I thought I was going to have to do that again. I pounded and twisted and two wouldn’t loosen. I tried something new this time. I turned the mech over and sprayed silicone lubricant on the bottoms of those screws. They are “cutters” meaning they have that special triangular cut along the threads that enables the screw to actually cut threads. I was hoping this cut would allow the lubricant to seep in. Then I went to lunch to give it time to work.

And work it did! A couple of healthy whacks with the hammer on the impact screw driver and they loosened up. O Happy Day! With the rack off it didn’t take long to get the clutch out and now the mech was ready to wash. I use a 50/50 mix of water and a wonderful cleaner/degreaser called Oil Eater in a spray bottle with a toothbrush. I start at the rear and work counter clockwise once just getting everything wet. Next time around I start scrubbing with the toothbrush as I spray. Typically three trips around do it, four if filthy. This was a fairly clean mech that had a thin layer of oil everywhere. I like seeing an oil and grime build-up. It protects the metal underneath from rusting. After the first go-round with the brush this dude was ready to rinse. Before doing that though I worked over the clutch unit and the tonearm assembly.

It all cleaned quickly and well. I was very surprised at how shiny the mechanism and base were as a matter of fact. I didn’t do the record rack. It was actually clean and not oily. As a bonus I won’t have to replace the paper number strips denoting the records. This mechanism is going to go together and work really easily. After a thorough rinse with the garden hose I put the two smaller assemblies in the sun to help dry them out. The mechanism gets turned upside down resting on a couple milk crates. I’ll give everything 3-5 days to dry depending on humidity in the winter and heat in the summer. A couple days in 102 degree heat works wonders for moisture evaporation. Low humidity days in winter time works almost as well.

I ended the day by finishing the recap on the TSR6 receiver. This is a pretty straightforward job. I even have a preferred order of replacement having done so many. Same with amplifiers. Snip each end of a capacitor, unsolder the old leads, insert new capacitor, wrap the leads and solder ’em up. I always finish with the pulse amplifier. I like to take the one side off held by five screws. This gives plenty of access to change out the one .05uf film capacitor and ohm out the resistors and chokes. I’ve never seen one of the chokes be bad as in open or grossly out of tolerance. I’ve done hundreds of these pulse amps and I’d really hate like hell to not check one of the three chokes and then the pulse amp not work and I take for granted that the chokes are good only to eventually find out after hours of troubleshooting and questioning my sanity that, indeed, I did have a bad choke. So, they get checked. Tomorrow I’ll dig out a set of the tubes to test this unit with. That is straightforward as well. If the DC voltages are present the unit will work in a juke. There are two tubes though that can check good on a tube tester, and I have a good one, and still not work properly in circuit. The 2050 and the two 0A2’s. I made sure to have one of each in the toolbox back in the service call days.