Townshend Rock viscuous damping - it’s migrating!

[jackinnj]

I was in a “vintage” retro hifi store last week. The owner showed me his Townshend Rock tt w viscuous damping. Only problem is that the damping fluid migrates out of its slot onto the tonearm!

 

[billshurv]

Where was it escaping from? I've wanted to make a trough like that but dealing with the fact that silicon fluid can and will escape always worries me.

 

[jackinnj]

It was migrating right out of the trough onto the fixture and stylus! The fixture seemed to be a powder coated aluminum casting.

Doing some research silicone fluids are used in dampers for scientific instruments. I could only guess that there is a specific fluid which would not migrate and the wrong one was employed in this instance.

 

[billshurv]

curious. At rest the paddle should be above the 'drip tray' part of the trough. I wonder if cuing actions were causing a sloshing to occur. Something for me to experiment with. I wonder if the fluid was over filled or too thin.

 

[Simon1972]

Yup overfilled or too thin

 

[craigtone]

Interesting ... owning a Well Tempered table myself I understand the importance of viscous damping. The WT fluid is silicone-based but VERY viscous (100,000 cSt) so no chance of migration. This scenario would also apply to the KAB SL-1200 fluid damper which also appears to use a rather viscous fluid (60,000 cSt). I'm also leaning towards too thin of a fluid as the culprit.

 

[davidsrsb]

Assuming that it has been filled with silicone fluid and not mineral oil