Removing Cutting Head

[boneius]

Hi,

I recently bought a Montgomery Ward Airline Record Cutter. The cutting head will need to be rebuilt, and it doesn't have a cutting stylus. I'm new to all of this, so I was wondering if someone could talk me through removing the cutting head so that I can send it to Gib Epling. It is an Astatic head and a General Industries machine. My biggest question is that there are two wires going into the head. Do I just cut those? Is there a simple way to detach them?

Thanks,

Jim

[emorritt]

First, if there is a stylus setscrew, remove it. In the GI machine cutting arm, there is an adjustable spring at the back of the arm used to set cutting depth. Unhook that spring from the plate bolted to the top of the cutting head (may be a bit difficult). Small needlenose pliers work best for this. That will release the head from the suspension clip and the head should drop out of the arm. The wires can be unsoldered from the terminals you will see at the back of the head, but you probably could cut them close to the head as I think Gib replaces this part as well during the rebuild. Don't cut too much wire and dress the ends, removing about 1/8" of insulation so you can re-solder when the head is returned. The X26 heads run on about 180VRMS, which is taken off the plate(s) of the output tube(s) (depending on whether the amp is push-pull or not) so make sure the unit isn't powered on when doing this. It probably wouldn't hurt you too much because it's generated by modulated audio output, but don't take a chance.

[boneius]

I just now got back to the forum and saw your post. Thanks a lot for the help!