Newspaper clipping

[jesse7876]

Hey all,
As I was cleaning my machine today, I noticed something in the spring of the launcher. I fished it out, and it was a curled up piece of Japanese newspaper.
Is this something common? Was it used to suppress noise in the spring or something?

Just curious.

Thanks,
Jesse

[JACKSJE4]

Yes, the newspaper was used to dampen the sound of the spring while the lever was being flicked.

[mxfaiman]

Yep. Every machine had a piece of 3" X 5" newsprint in the spring. I tend to leave the original paper in the spring as it does no harm (as long as it is whole.) I know one member replaces the paper with weather stripping I think. Because he says it dampens the sound more and makes the spring feel firmer. Like I said it don't matter much to me as long as it gets the job done.

[emmadog]

Yeah I use weather stripping but anything that is substantial stuffed in there enough will do the trick. The stripping is ideal since it expands inside the spring. In the end it's just a simple preference. It's one of those things that once you hear the properly dampened spring or don't hear it actually, you prefer it. But I'm a stickler for the very small details.

[jesse7876]

Ah, thanks!
I was hoping I had found some stashed cash, or maybe a treasure map to Atlantis!

I find it interesting that in a mass production, they used rolled up newspaper clippings; I could see it being an afterthought on the first models, but that they would have built in some dampening device or even a plain piece of paper for future models.

I may try the weatherstripping idea.

[emmadog]

Not sure that newspaper clippings were put in at the factory. I tend to think it was done by the parlor owners.