Geo Stevens 39AM

[CheopisIV]

Hey all, I just picked up a Geo Stevens 39AM machine off eBay. From the little info I can find, it seems I'll need to mod it for pickup bobbins but altogether it appears to be a solid machine. The counter is messed up and it looks like it could use a cleanup however was listed as fully operational (aside from the counter).

I'm wondering if anyone had any insights into this thing; I still don't have it but should be here by mid next week. I'm looking for any relevant info ie: operations, cam/gear selection, parts manual...whatever! Even some pictures of a clean and fully operational one would rock. Google has proven less that stellar aside from a few threads on the forum here.

Here's some eye candy from the eBay listing.

Cheers!









(Hmm, thought I was in the Winding Gear forum...)

[David King]

Well it looks like you have all the gears so that's a good start. I see a few cams on the center dowel at the back. You'll need to make a different cam for each bobbin width. Changing to an electronic counter like the Sestos with presets will be an improvement and if you want to get closer to a "hand wound" pickup you'll need to build a more sophisticated traverse system.

The tension mechanism is very simple with what look like hanging weights. A solid starting point.

Heck you could probably sell the gears and cams for more that you paid for the thing and use that $$ to upgrade.

[CheopisIV]

I have Hinsley's old Lathe based winder for the hand guided stuff and a Thomas winder that I started on for backup. This one will be mostly for learning how these old thing work and hopefully can turn out some decent coils. If I can't get onto it I'm sure I can sell it off for more than I paid. The gears alone seem to be pretty hard to come by!

[David King]

The drive systems looks very sophisticated. Is it a 3 phase or DC motor?

[CheopisIV]

[Jim Darr]

Saw this on eBay myself a week or so back. Looked like a decent deal especially with the BIN price and all those gears, despite the counter issue.

Several of us here on the Forum have experience with these old Geo Stevens winders...so feel free to ask any questions as you set up the machine.

The motor is typical of these type of machines.

These manual counters typically need to be lubricated quite frequently, so check it out carefully before you run it to avoid any damage. Also, check the counter's drive pulleys and chain (or drive belt) for slippage. Lastly, the counter might not be a "one to one" ratio to the winding head.

I'm personally not familiar with the Meteor tensioning and dereeling device, but it looks fairly simple to figure out. I suspect it is probably spring loaded.

Good luck. Keep us posted on your progress.

[CheopisIV]

Thanks! I'll definitely be asking questions as they come up. I expect this to arrive early to mid next week...should be at the border this evening.

[ReWind]

A nice simple clean example you found, there. I'm sure you can get that up and running with far less fuss that I put into one of my old Stevens machines.

Congrats!

[Beef Coon]

Congrats! I almost pulled the trigger on that badboy, I probably should have! I'd imagine you'll be able to hit just about any TPL you want with all those gears.

[CheopisIV]

Thanks guys, can't wait to give it a whirl.

James, I'll be hounding you for pics and info on your machine if I can't figure this out, but it looks pretty simple from the pictures....that's assuming my thoughts onthe operation are correct. I'm sure it's no more complex than any other lathe, mill, etc out there.

Bob... this is a little bit your fault I think you should know. After watching you set up and run your winder (Coweco?) on the D&P vid I wanted to play with old machines again. I used to work in print and ran an old Heidelberg GTO (among others) that always impressed me with the craftsmanship. Old machines are just built to last. Comparatively, our 5 head Miller was a piece of shit from a more modern time period and required many elastic bands and wads of paper to keep it running

[Beef Coon]

Cool. I love mine, and yes it's a Coweco. You're going to want to hunt down a gear ratio table for that thing for ease of figuring different turns per layer.

Funny, in a previous life I was an art/prepress director. I caught the tail end of mechanical paste ups (remember wax machines?). Does anyone even know about film stripping and metal plates anymore?

[David King]

Stevens had a little book in the 1950s with all the gear ratios and cams. There are links to the PDF version in the coil winders section.
http://music-electronics-forum.com/t31498/

[CheopisIV]

Thank you for the book link David!!! I must have missed it in my searches so far.

I don't know about Wax Machines Bob, but I was involved in a whole lot of plate prep including film development and splicing, light tables, halftone filtering, color separation, burning and development.... my parents owned their own print shop when I was in high school in the 90s and taught me everything from start to finish which helped me land a job in the biggest print house in central Alberta after moving out. It's amazing how much that stuff sticks to a guy; I still can't read a magazine, newspaper, poster, business card without examining the color registration, layout and orientation or cuts!!! I still miss my little eyeglass for close examination. Not only did it look cool, but it would be helpful for pickup building and likely other things. Just for kicks, I should give measurements in Picas on my pickups leads and wire useage.

[Beef Coon]

Type setting would be done on a computer, printed out on laser paper then ran through a little machine that would put a very light film of wax on the bottom. So for mechanical paste-ups you could peel up an element, reposition it and place it back down again very easily. Gosh, I forgot all about shooting halftones. Yes, yes picas all the way!

[CheopisIV]

That sounds... interesting if not a little bit crazy!

It was a running joke in the big shop to hand the new guy a styrofoam cup and tell him to go to pre-press and get a half cup of halftone dots! Anyone who fell for it would come back all red faced... the prepress department was a bit high strung around there and it was not a nice place to visit, let alone ask for absurd things. One guy actually came back down and quit on the spot but we kept sending them