I was told on the FB group to look for DocP, but really anyone with the wherewithal could help me. I just posted a short video there and some stills of my WM-10 that has a 2mm gap in the teeth of the takeup reel. It stops at that point in the rotation. I enquired on Ebay and wasn't able to source a compression molded retrofit gear for that model. Anyone here could help me acquire the right-hand gear spindle gear? Any help is much appreciated. Cheers, Jonathan (JCHaywire)
@DocP is a member here. He used to be very active few years ago. Can you post your video here I would like to see where the actual crack on the gear is I had this issue with a WM-800 which shares the same gear as WM-10/20/30
Your video shows a defect on bottom part of the wheel. I cannot hear a clicking sound. Does it click? I have never seen any part made for replacement of this wheel but you can get this wheel from different walkman units. several walkman models share this exact wheel.
Thank you. Yes, there are about three broken teeth in the black plastic part of the gear. I'm not sure what the "bottom" of a wheel that rotates is--but we are seeing the same thing. I got another WM-10 from Ebay, RWD/FFD not working but playback is fine, according to the seller. I'm rolling the dice on that gear being good. I bought that before finding out that the part was interchangeable with probably other walkmen from cheaper strains of the species. Anyway, thanks for your comments. There is a clicking on playback--but it became just a STOP when the gear reaches the gap on its rotation. So now there isn't a clicking. There is a stop as the takeup reel quits and the tape is dumped to the right of the capstan into the shell of the device until the tape is effectively munched. I'll let this thread know what happened. Jonathan "JCHaywire"
Like most gear wheels that have a plastic rim with the teeth mounted on metal , aging seems to cause contraction and snapping. An easy enough fix with a material like epoxy putty . Fill in the gap and 'create' an extra tooth or two ( much like a dentist would do )
if anyone stumbles across this in the future ive had to fix these several times, ive tried using epoxy to reform the gears but it seems i could never get the teeth to form quite right in my experience you just have to find another unit without a cracked take up reel gear and use it to replace the broken one though im looking into making 3d printed replacement, just have to finish up the model
You need to break the gear in another point (or two) in order to fix this gear properly, because the break is usually not a fixed number of teeth. I did such epoxy repairs succesfully (https://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/sony-wm-10-take-up-reel-advice-needed.3625/#post-63103). Replacing the entire assembly with another good one is of course an option (although an expensive one), however given the plastic on metal design there is still a risk of break in the future. However, if gear is repaired with epoxy and broken in another place, even if the POM material shirnks further, it cannot break anymore at that point. And the other breaks are small enough to only compensate for the uneven break in the ring, but not create any clicking (they engage perfectly with the drive gear). Good luck in regard to making a 3D printed replacement, please let us know your results because I'm skeptical about the possibility of making a 3D printed version given how small the ring is and how fine the lip on which it sits onto the metal disc is. People have tried to 3D print larger gears (on which tolerances are much higher) and failed to do so. Making a 3D model is one thing, manufacturing a ring that is identical to that 3D model is another. I certainly don't want to discourage you in this endeavor, but I think you need to have realistic expectation in regard to 3D printing, even if best 3D printers available are to be used.
well ive actually already made a ton of progress with it, the original gear is molded over the metal disc, ive already got the model about halfway finished but im waiting to test my initial model to see how it compares to the original in size once my printer and resin are here (linked an image of the model in its current shape, putting it off for the time being and making other things) another part i actually just finished earlier today, i recreated that annoying plastic latch/spring piece that commonly breaks in the wm-10/wmf10 models (image below) im working on modeling a lot of pieces for the model right now, like the f10 ii cover which i did first, im unsure when ill have them all finished but so far im getting them done quite quick and they all seem to be turning out well edit as for the plastic gear piece though as mentioned earlier, the way im planning to mount it is by cutting it in 2 separate pieces, then it should be as easy as sliding it on the edges with a little bit of glue in the crevice where the edge of the metal disc sits, im still going to have to toy around with it, use different kinds of resin to test the longevity and such (and yes im using resin since i want these parts to be as identical to the original pieces as possible)
also not to bombard this old post with lengthy walls of text, but this is the cover i mentioned in my reply above if youre curious about that pretty happy with how it turned out (i spent WAY too long on this one), though i cant be sure on how accurate it is until i do some test prints
I am definetly interested in WM-10 parts, hence why I asked for updates once a prototype gear is made functional. From my observation, it might be possible that the original gear is not molded onto the metal disc, but made separately. It has a 45 degree lip which goes into a recess made into the inside of the disc, then the edges snap into place. That lip is what would be the hardest to replicate in my opinion, but then of course glueing the ring to the disc is also an option as you mentioned. Glad to hear you put so much time into these, as parts like these are really needed. Battery covers are missing on a lot of these devices, so a decent replacement is highly needed. The WM-10 one has that outer aluminium sheet with paint and "STEREO" writing, but a functional cover is definetely better than no cover at all. Looking forward to see some completed parts, I'm really curious to see how they turn out !
if they go as planned, i might go about selling some limited numbers on here or some similar forum, though only if they come out as good as i expect them to, and provided they dont take a very long time to make (i think with the size of this printer i can squeeze out about atleast 5 basic covers at a time) then it just comes down to painting as for the covers, im planning to make my own template using the original lettering from some covers i have around, so i can paint on the original lettering and decals and make them look indistinguishable from the originals and the take up reel gear i can tell is molded on, if you take a broken one off the disc, on the bottom there is a tapered lip going around the bottom of the metal disc which holds it on, obv i cant produce something like that which can hold on that well on its own as a molded part would, but i can try to replicate something reliable just making a decent design and using the right adhesive (or could possibly add a chunk of plastic on the bottom that can be melted with a soldering iron to stick it on, just an idea) im working on it rn, i just have to get the measurements on it right, then it should be pretty easy from there though outside of the gear and painting logistics, the rest should be quite straightforward anyways i might just make a post on here detailing all of this as i get things finished, up next im going to finish the f20 cover (which is where i got the latch part from)
oh also i should have some test prints coming out sometime a little after this wednesday (Jan 4th is when the printer itself gets here), the resin should be here by next weekend, will be working on some new models until then (f10 radio cover possibly, finish the f20 cover, and find someone on my server who is willing to lend out a wm-10/20 cover for me to measure) although im not really sure on the possibility of someone on there having a wm-10 cover i could borrow, seems only 1-2 people on there had a wm-10 in the past, if i cant find one i might have to just drop it until i can get one myself EDIT (again): i found someone with one and he agreed to let me borrow it to measure, in return i offered to send him 2 copies of the final thing when i finished the model and had the paint figured out, also paying shipping
I'll be watching this post with a lot of interest. Hope printing the gear works out well for you. If you do consider selling one I'd be very interested. I'm restoring a WM-30 and the gear is the last part of the puzzle. Good luck!
ah the one im using for measurements i have apart just like that, plucked one of the pieces off, all thats left for my model to run a test print is adding that curve to the top end of the gear where its molded to the bend of the disc also im just going to make my own thread covering the progress on this, since im just adding to an old abandoned post
