[sunnydaze]

You're just a guy with a Scheu who thinks his shit sounds good and you're defending it.  I don't believe you.  Looks like another POS belt drive with a Jasmine motor and not enough torque. 

Belt drive, yes.  POS?   Have you heard it?  Or just a dumb generalization driven by a strong bias? 

I'd never presume to comment so strongly on gear without hearing it, regardless of design.  I've seen you recommend some tables on here that my setup will absolutely crush.  Best to keep an open mind.

Not Jasmine.  It's a DC motor made by ESE Lab (European mfr) specifically for Eurolab.   Plenty of torque, my friend.  Maintains absolutely perfect speed, according to my KAB strobe.

More Neo nonsence and ignorance, motivated (I suspect) by his anger, and need to lash out and ridicule my gear in order to elevate himself.

[ACHiPo]

Sunny,
Please stop responding to Neo.  It is adding no value.

Neo,
Likewise.

You guys clearly have stepped on each other's weewees so let it go.  The horse is dead (or at least should be)

I value both your opinions, but the personal diatribes really don't accomplish anything positive. 

Thanks.

[sunnydaze]

You got it Evan.  Time to bandage my weewee!     

      

[neobop]

Evan,
I wasn't sure whether I was going to build a plinth or go with a Halcro type pod design for my motor unit and arm(s).  I think it will be pods, consequently I've been thinking about the logistics.  It's really not very hard to make an exit hole for the cable, in the base.  It's even easier if you have a hollow box or cylinder.  You can fill it up with sand/lead and leave space as required.  The exit hole only has to fit one connector.  When mounting the arm, attach cable first then thread one plug at a time, through the hole.
   One thing I'm quite sure of, for my purposes it must be heavy.

You said you were thinking of a plinth mount?  Wouldn't you have to extend the plinth, or is it big enough? 

If anyone is interested in DIY spikes this is from a PM:

Once you determine thread type, just buy some bolts of appropriate length.  Then grind down the head into a spike.  Walla, you have a threaded spike.  Use 1 or 2 nuts for jam nuts (2 will lock it).  It helps if you have a bench grinder, but you can probably use a vice and a grinding wheel drill attachment.  You might have to put the drill in the vice.
neo

[ACHiPo]

Neo,
Thanks!

I'm off to the shop for a couple hours, as I think I have the pod figured out for now.  When I get a chance to post pics of my finished design I think you'll find we're thinking closer rather than further apart.

I'm going to try the existing "sticky feet" approach first, and in parallel figure out what size threaded rods I need to fashion some spikes. 

Evan

[neobop]

Don't forget the threaded inserts for the spikes.  You have to drill the hole for the inserts deep enough for some of the spike.
neo

[ACHiPo]

In the home stretch, at least for this leg of the experiment.

Here are a couple photos of the pod/outrigger before finishing, but after I added the rear legs to address the balance issue.  By the way, I weighed the pod after filling with shot and it's 8.5 lbs, making the total assembly 13.5 lbs with tonearm.







It won't win any design competitions, but given it's the first time I've resawn veneer, I'm pretty happy with it as a learning woodworking piece.





It tough to photograph, but the main reason I ended up going down the cantilevered design route is how massive the tonearm mounting boss is--the top flange is just under 4" in diameter, and the boss itself is just over 2.5" in diameter.  I think I need the tonearm mount to be about 2.5" from the edge of the plinth, so going with a typical pod tower would not have allowed for much mass unless I made everything a lot taller (or copied Halcro and used stone or some other equally dense material).


Once the pod with tonearm is in place on the Herbies dots, the assembly is very stable and solid, with about the same amount of compliance as between the WTT plinth and shelf.  It may be too much to get good results, but I'll jump off that bridge when I get to it.

[ACHiPo]

Don't forget the threaded inserts for the spikes.  You have to drill the hole for the inserts deep enough for some of the spike.
neo

Neo,
The feet I'm using for the pod have 1/4-20 threaded inserts.  The holes are 1.25" deep.

I still need to figure out what size and pitch the WTT feet have.

Here's a pic with a straight JELCO DIN.  There's enough space for the wires to turn, but the right angled DIN will be better.




Evan

[neobop]

Take one of the WT feet to a hardware/home improvement.  They can match the thread. 

[neobop]

This is from a PM about making an antiskate device:

I think it's easier to use a bucket and string.  With a set weight you have to vary the distance of the string from the mount (pivot).  They're usually on a calibrated bar. 
At a mart you can get a small thimble and some heavy duty thread - easier to work than fishing line.  Find an aluminum rod at a hardware - 1/8" or thinner doesn't look as crude. 
   You have to mount the rod on the cueing platform and have it go up to the level of your string, mounted on the rotating pivot housing.  The rod should flatten out (bend) at the top so the string can drape over it. 
   You need to glue a bar (plastic or toothpick?) across the top of the thimble so you can tie on the string.  With the arm in the rest position, have the thimble just above the base or armboard.  As the arm swings, the thimble will rise.  Add lead shot as needed to increase antiskate.  The weight of the thimble will apply AS all the time, so use a small thimble if it's metal.

If you mount in front, the weight goes to the outside, and in back - toward the spindle.


Sonus Formula 4 - mounted on the back of rotating pivot housing


Unitrac - mounted on arm tube. 
neo

[ACHiPo]

Take one of the WT feet to a hardware/home improvement.  They can match the thread.

Matching the thread is easy.  It's the job of lifting the plinth, uncrewing a foot, and chocking it up that is the hassle--the WTT is HEAVY.  I'll figure it out at some point.

[ACHiPo]

This is from a PM about making an antiskate device:

I think it's easier to use a bucket and string.  With a set weight you have to vary the distance of the string from the mount (pivot).  They're usually on a calibrated bar. 
At a mart you can get a small thimble and some heavy duty thread - easier to work than fishing line.  Find an aluminum rod at a hardware - 1/8" or thinner doesn't look as crude. 
   You have to mount the rod on the cueing platform and have it go up to the level of your string, mounted on the rotating pivot housing.  The rod should flatten out (bend) at the top so the string can drape over it. 
   You need to glue a bar (plastic or toothpick?) across the top of the thimble so you can tie on the string.  With the arm in the rest position, have the thimble just above the base or armboard.  As the arm swings, the thimble will rise.  Add lead shot as needed to increase antiskate.  The weight of the thimble will apply AS all the time, so use a small thimble if it's metal.

If you mount in front, the weight goes to the outside, and in back - toward the spindle.


Sonus Formula 4 - mounted on the back of rotating pivot housing


Unitrac - mounted on arm tube. 
neo

The "bucket" idea makes sense.  I'll noodle on that for a while.  Thanks for the pics.

[neobop]

I forgot to mention, the aluminum rod bends easily, you don't need tools for that.  The hard part might be attaching it to the lifter platform. 
I had to replace the platform on the Sonus and the new one is wood, so it was easy. 
neo

[sunnydaze]

Hey Evan-----

I may have missed it, but how do you intend to maintain correct distance, platter relative to arm mount?

I don't know the weights you're dealing with, but from experience I know that if both are not quite heavy (or somehow anchored to shelf), they will tend to shift -- just from incidental minor bumps and brushes with your gear -- and your mount distance will be lost. 

In my specific case, my table is very heavy, effectively making it stationary.  But my DIY arm platform was the problem.  Which is why I clamped it very solidly to my BB top shelf.  When I change arms,  I simply relocate the platform (or table) to obtain correct mount distance.

[ACHiPo]

Hey Evan-----

I may have missed it, but how do you intend to maintain correct distance, platter relative to arm mount?

I don't know the weights you're dealing with, but from experience I know that if both are not quite heavy (or somehow anchored to shelf), they will tend to shift -- just from incidental minor bumps and brushes with your gear -- and your mount distance will be lost. 

That's where the Herbies dots come in.  The WTT Reference is 60 lbs or so, and won't move location, but does have a few thousandths lateral compliance.  The tonearm + pod is over 13 lbs.  When I put the feet on the dots, they don't move.  There is a tad bit of compliance from a combination of the feet and dots (maybe 0.005" when I push on the pod with my hand (maybe 20 lbs of force?), which still may be too much to extract the most out of the groove, but I think is worth trying.

If the dots aren't adequate, I'm going to use spikes on dimpled plates (to protect the shelf).  If that still isn't adequate, I'm moving to a "super plinth"--a massive (granite or equivalent) plate machined with a cut-out for the motor and holes to attach the tonearm and turntable.  The whole assembly will have some sort of leveling suspension (except the motor, which will sit on a compliant platform which will sit on the shelf).  Of course when/if I reach that point, I may decide to scrap the whole thing and find a good direct or idler drive deck and build a plinth for multiple tonearms.

Evan

[ACHiPo]

I've been trading PMs with SClark and Neo on the tonearm, as its anti-skate mechanism is FUBAR.  Here's a picture of the little mainspring that the knob controls.  The spring is supposed to fit in a hole on the tonearm vertical axle, but it won't stay put, which is why Neo was nice enough to post some ideas to fabricate an alternate approach.

[S Clark]

Now I see the problem.  Mine has a cover over the bottom of that milled out area containing the spring. Yours doesn't.  My spring is not exposed.   Perhaps something as simple as a thin piece of aluminum lightly hot glued over the cut out would hold the spring in place???

[S Clark]

Here is a look at mine.

[ACHiPo]

Ahhh it looks like there might have been a problem with mine and someone pulled the cover to "fix" it.  The problem is not the lack of a cover, but rather that the mainspring doesn't engage in the axle.

Well, now you know what's under the cover  And why we got such a great deal. 

Thanks for checking.

[S Clark]

  Wow.  That's a bum deal.