Blue Califone 1420K from my elementary school

[radiotvnut]

A couple of months ago, I spotted this blue Califone 1420K classroom record player at the flea market. They wanted $50 for the player and several educational LP's. I lifted the lid and discovered that the tonearm was busted off. I asked the owners of the flea market to call the owner and see what she'd do on the price. She swore nothing was wrong with it and wouldn't budge on the price.

I then noticed that the record player and records were once property of my old elementary school. Heck, even the name of my first grade teacher was written inside the lid. At that point, I wanted it for sentimental reasons; but, not bad enough to pay $50.

Today, I was back in there and asked them to call her again. She said that she looked at the player and saw where the tonearm was broken; but, said it wasn't that way when she left it there. She agreed to sell the player and the records for $30. Given it's condition, that's about $25 more than it was worth and $25 more than I'd normally pay; but, since this unit has a little bit of sentimental meaning, I went ahead and got it. If it didn't have sentimental meaning, I"d probably junk it for parts.

Not only is the tonearm busted off, the center bearing is loose (I can probably JB Weld it back in place). If that does not work out, it shouldn't be too hard to find a 4-speed Alliance drive mechanism. The tonearm will be much harder to find. I opened it up and it looks to be from '74 and this is the baby model with the smaller rear firing speaker.