Williams Music Mite Juke -box

The only juke ever made by the pinball giant Williams, brought on the market in 1951. Only 10 selections, quiet normal for a table-top model. Dimensions are 13x 20x 13 inches ( 20 = height) .

1951 was the year the " battle" for more selections was started. Probably one of the reasons this model with the poor 10 selection option was not at all succesfull, the model was made for one year only!! The main reason only a few did survive.

The model was designed by Harry Williams himself ,big boss of the Williams company at that time. The mechanism was a RCA mecanish already used in small record players.

The box was untouched for at least 40 years , dusty and rusty, but complete. Afther a quick first test , using a 24 volts source , the coils and motors came out working ,nothing burnt out , OOEEFF , the juke was never by error connected to a 220 volt outlet as it is made for the US marked where 110 volts rules.

The grille is normally chromed here it's simply brown by rust, luckely the juke was never stored in a damp place , so the paint on the glass did not peel off.

On the side a pretty and colorfull design.

A vieuw on the compact selection mechanism, and the tiny amplifier. When the general illumination will work again , that should light up the colorfull front window , as we are used to in pinball's .

Look at the connector on the right , a connector exactly as we find them in EM pinball machines.

The RCA mechanism.

The inside of the compartiment again nicely decorated and in good condition .

The complete RCA mechanism, we can clearly see the lifting arm that will lift the records afther termination of a played selection .To start all 10 records are on top ( red section ) of the axe. When a selection is made , the records keep falling until the one that was selected is on the turntable. Once the record is played the arm lift all records ..

Dismantling the mechanism.

This cry's for a serious cleaning !!!!

The tiny amplifier, only three valves, one rectifier 6x4, one double valve 6AT6 ( diode-triode) mounted as pré-amp and finaly the power output a 6V6, this will deliver us 4,5 watts , not a enought for a ball-room !

The underside still neat, just had to replace 3 capacitors and the amp was again ok.

The metal work of the solid keyboard, every key is maintained by a coil as used in the EM pinball counters. The contacts are the classic leaf contacts straight out of a Williams pinball machine .

The motor that lift the records and moves the arm, indeed a score motor of a EM pinball again !

In the middle a pinball relais and the well know " players unit" , here used for the selection cirquitry .

The contact point on the " players unit" here called the " control unit" could do with a good cleaning , these contacts are normally shining copper !!

The restoration can start

When metal parts are sanded to remove the rust, the oxide layer wich protect the metal against rusting is partially removed , i put always a new coat of gun blue at these parts to protect them again.

The mechanics cleaned and oiled . New rubber mounts for the motor to prevent vibration. All moving parts well oiled, all spring eyes , closed a little more to prevent springs to come loose during the multiple handling of the mechanics during testing and adjusting.

The amp cleaned , repaired , tested and ready for use. Sound and volume are again 100%.

The wooden frame cleaned.

Afther cleaning the loudspeaker cloth was as new.

The rusty grill...

It looks better now.

The complete keyboard and mechanics , ready to clean. The loudspeaker is still nice .

A good picture of the key's before treatment.

Again a step forward. Abraded and half of the key's treated with gun blue.

These are your friends agains rust. The bigger one for parts that can be disassembled and the small on the dremel for more difficult places to get by.

The complete mechanics remounted and cleaned.

Detail of the clean selector unit.

New fuse holders.

The box is almost left as-is , just some minor restoration, i prefer that it shows its age , 55 years.

The metal coin insert is bright again.

Afther cleaning and mounting i needed three days to have the mechanics running again. All contact cleaned and adjusted. Some adjustements took quit some time to find the right way working without any manual . Another big job was ccleaning all lamp sockets , a thing we also have to do in older EM pinballs where the sockets are always oxidated and rusty.

A last challenge was the rubber weel between the motor and the record weel. The rubber was completely hardened with lot of grooves , completely useless from aging. Het whole thing was shaking while turning . The weel had to be replaced and of course no spare parts to find.

Here the original weel, we see clearly the many grooves and the bad shape.

I did try an overlay with rubber bands, the weel turned better but the grooves stil had their effect , they did show trough the rubber band and , there where still shaking movements .

So i did dive into my junk-box and found an older AMI juke weel and a smaller weel from and old printer.

One of the three printer weels was cut of and the two others where glued with metal glue on the AMI bigger weel. Now the whole setup turned smootly but the rotation was to slow.

Adding a extra rubber band on the smaller weel was the solution and brought me to the wanted 45 rmp.

Last testing

Here every thing connected outside the box, the only thing not mounted is the record lifter . I placed some records on the central axe , and tried the third selection on the keyboard

Look at the video here ..... (At the start of the video i say " i make selection 3" and at the end , " now we cancel the record ( that is in Dutch...)

Final

I stil had no label board witch was missing, no big problem , on a photo of the juke i could see who it was , and made a new one, instead of metal i used simply cardboard .

The board with and without labels.

Here is the juke completely finished, i did add some colorfull lining , the red and blue , normally it's also in gold color but i found it much better with some colors.

As it came in.....

See and hear it play on the video, i did adapt again the speed and now it's really doing his 45 RMP !! At first it was somewhat speedy!! ............

IO also found the complete manual, if interested you can download it here ....

And here the manual for the R.C.A. mechanics .....

Making the pedestal.

On a flyer of the machine found on the WWW i had the dimensions and a photo of the pedestal . With a good friend who has machines for wood work , we started to make the pedestal.

Here the extract of the flyer with the photo and dimensions