Record Player ID? Identified as a Fidelity HF42 “mini player”.

[Station X]

Spotted this on FreeCycle and I'm picking it up tomorrow. Anyone know the make and model?

Looks like a BSR arm to me.

Thanks.

[Edward Huggins]

Graham, it's a FIDELITY HF42. They play surprisingly loud.

[ms660]

Looks similar to this Fidelity:

https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/fidelity_hf42.html

Lawrence.

[BRASSBITS]

It's a Fidelity

[vidjoman]

Must be a Fidelity

[martinhog]

It’s a Fidelity HF42 “mini player” . Standard fit was a BSRX5M cartridge and a 1.5 watt i.c. amplifier. Early versions had 16 rpm, the majority were 33, 45 and 78 RPM. Kinder to records than the current supermarket offerings. Had mine for 40 years now .

[Station X]

Thanks everyone. A unanimous decision.

I did wonder what cartridge was likely to be fitted and noted that it had an adaptor so that 45's with the centre removed can be played.

It's described as tatty so I'll do a quick check on it to see whether it gets fixed straight way or goes on the To Do shelf.

[Herald1360]

Someone pulled the chain on the information cistern all right here!

[crackle]

I have only ever seen a plastic wood finish on these, was the one in the OP an early one with rexine covering.
The thing with these is, be careful not to coil the PVC mains lead on the plastic turntable, it can sometimes make some awful scars on it.
Mike

[stacman]

Agree with storing of the flex, my Mrs has got one of these, I bought it her before we were married, and there is a storage compartment for the flex, it has 3 holes in the base for the prongs of the plug, but it has scarred the inside of the compartment, not too bad but wouldn’t look good on the platter, the unit still works, she used it last year time.
Regards, Alan.

[af024]

Great little machines for what they are, but the arm mount at the rear there can tip to one side as the years roll on by (presumably a rubber grommet or some such slowly disintegrating/going out of shape?). I've seen some playing records with a definite tilt, sometimes to the extent that the undercarriage of the cartridge can drag on the record itself. No doubt things can be re-positioned if necessary.

[Station X]

I've now collected this.

Case is made from three plastic mouldings with a band of Rexine round the centre. Mouldings a bit grubby, but no cracks. Slight nick in Rexine. One end of handle detached but brass end piece and screw (not a self tapper) is present. Rattling from case suggests that nut is inside.

Mains plug missing. Receptacle for mains lead and plug underneath. Compartment can also house six U" batteries, but there are no contact strips!

Arm bearings are good, but pillar which supports arm is loose in top plate. Stylus OK. Cartridge type not checked.

With no missing parts, this could be a one day restoration. Watch this space.

[Station X]

All fixed and working. It took a bit more than a clean and fitting a mains plug though.

Full report with pictures tomorrow.

[Station X]

Visual inspection showed that the metal part of the stylus was slighty bent in the vertical plane. It was straightened with the aid of a magnifier and a pair of tweezers. A scribed arc across the aluminium strip to the right of the arm showed that the stylus had been dragged across it several times.

The speed selector was free to move over most of its intended travel, but was obviously not doing anything. The turntable was free to rotate clockwise, but locked if an attempt was made to rotate it anti-clockwise, a sure sign that the idler wheel was correctly engaging the motor pulley and the inner rim of the turntable.

I decided to throw caution to the wind and apply some mains power, which I did using my equivalent of a Keynector. No prizes for H&S here! The plug is fitted with a 1A fuse.

On switching on the turntable rotated at 45 RPM and scratching the stylus produced sound from the speaker. I played a 45 and as Edward has said the sound was unexpectedly loud. The OFF/ON/Volume control and tone control worked, but were incredibly noisy.

Using this player was a bit different to what I'm used to. The turntable was presumably designed to be stopped by turning the speed control to the neutral position, but this could involve switching through several speeds. I elected to switch off the player completely when changing records, but this could be done with the turntable rotating.

[Station X]

Now to tackle the stuck speed control.

The turntable was held in place with the usual circlip, but this was located under the centreless record adaptor and therefore inaccessible. The adaptor is lifted and rotated to put it into the active position, but cannot be removed. Removing the bottom cover showed that the adaptor clicks into place and to remove it I had to push back three sprung lugs.

The turntable circlip was removed and the plastic turntable came off easily. The idler wheel was removed in a similar manner.

The idler arm tension spring was unhooked and the arm rotated to a position where a half moon cutout in its periphery enabled it to clear the brass speed adjustment screw enabling that too to be removed.

It was clear that the plastic speed adjustment arm was stuck on its shaft. It could be moved radially a bit, but not axially. I used fine emery cloth to clean most of the rust off of the outer end of the shaft, applied a drop of machine oil, and, after unhooking its tension spring succeeded in wriggling it off.

The shaft miked up at 3/16", so I ran a hand reamer of that diameter through the hole in the arm to remove any burrs. It helps to have more than one hobby!

Next I turned my attention to the shaft. It was clear that the speed control couldn't be removed without first removing the shaft. Whether the shaft was pressed or screwed into the red moulding I don't know and I had no intention of finding out for fear of breaking something.

The shaft was cleaned of all rust using fine emery cloth. I had to wrap this round the shaft of a small screwdriver to get inside the speed control cylinder and progress was slow. Sorry, but no pictures of this. The speed control arm then fitted easily on the shaft to which I applied a smear of silicone grease.

A trial assembly showed that the speed control was now functioning correctly and moving the idler into the correct step on the motor pulley for each speed.

The mechanism was then reassembled with a tiny amount of oil being applied to the motor and idler bearings.

The horizontal bearing at the rear of the arm had no slackness at all. The arm supporting pillar had both axial and side to side play in the black plastic bush in which it pivots. This may be normal. In any event there is no easy way of correcting it as the parts seem to be glued together.

With the bottom cover temporarily in position I tried out all the speeds and played an LP. I don't have any 78's and wouldn't play them with the double side LPS stylus in any case.

[vidjoman]

My son had a similar model and I'm sure there was a switch when the arm was on the rest. Don't forget to put the speed switch to neutral when not in use or you'll get a flat spot on the idler wheel.

[Station X]

Minimal electrical work was needed. The amplifier was fully functional. I checked the electrolytic caps with an ESR Meter and they were all fine.

Getting Servisol into the volume and tone controls wasn't easy, as the access point near the tags was hard against the PCB. I managed it using an extension tube, but was careful to remove all excess liquid lest it damaged the PCB or plastic mouldings.

The Servisol totally cured the noisy controls.

[Station X]

Originally Posted by vidjoman

My son had a similar model and I'm sure there was a switch when the arm was on the rest. Don't forget to put the speed switch to neutral when not in use or you'll get a flat spot on the idler wheel.

I don't think my player has that. The double pole mains switch feeds 240 VAC to the motor which has a tap to supply 9 VAC to the amp for FW Rectification. Perhaps you're thinking of the battery version for which I don't have a circuit?

The player has probably been stuck at 33 RPM for 30 years or more and there's no sign of a flat on the idler. Good advice nevertheless.

[Station X]

Finally the cosmetic stuff.

The lid, bottom moulding, turntable and strap all went into the kitchen sink which was filled with warm water and a squirt of washing up liquid. Scrubbing with a green plastic washing up scourer soon removed the dirt and the parts were dried with an old tea towel.

The band round the case isn't in fact Rexine, but some kind of plastic material resembling Formica, but with a textured surface. This and all the other parts which couldn't be immersed had to be cleaned with a J Cloth dipped in the washing up water. White spirit was used on stubborn marks. The end result wasn't entirely satisfactory, but it'll do.

The end caps for the strap were rusted plated steel rather than brass. The rust was removed with fine emery cloth followed by cleaning with Magic Wadding aka Duraglit. The missing nut was indeed floating around inside the case and was used to refit the strap.

The thin alloy strip on the right of the deck had lifted at the front end. It was resecured with contact adhesive.

The screw securing the cartridge holder had rusted, so it was replaced. The cartridge was a BSR X5M

Everything was then reassembled. Unfortunately the battery compartment cover is missing. I've asked the donor if she still has it. If no luck I'll make a new one, assuming I can find some suitable red plastic sheet. All the stuff I have is blue or black

All in all I'm quite impressed with this little player. It has a 1960's look about it and functions rather well for what it is.

[vidjoman]

Your second post of pictures was not there when I suggested there might be a switch and clearly it's not there.
I think my son's player (which could have been different, certainly wasn't red) had a cheap open switch operated by a plastic pin within the arm rest so replacing the arm turned off the motor. On second thoughts, although similar, it was a valve player so perhaps an earlier version.