Technics Sl 1200 bearing

[nimbus24]

Hi, directdriver
Today is Wednesday at 3.20 and would you believe I have just returned home and waiting for me was a 2Kg copper platter machined to my specs, to exaactly fit the 1200 platter (and it's silly rim) the supplier is Larry Denham of LTJ Engineering Newmarket Ontario The company's web site is TTweights.com
5-1111 Gorham St. I have not had time to test the mat as I have currently removed the maine drive board from my own 1200 in order to make sure my new bearing assembly fits accurately
(Could not locate another 1200 in my area at a reasonable price)!!
I believe Larry will now be producing these mats to these dimensions for those who need them. He has undercut the outside diameter so as to fit exactly inside the lip from dimensions we jointly discussed (a lip bottom radius must be allowed for) It is a beautifully machined piece of work executed on a very accurate lathe mounted vacuum jig. I fits my platter perfectly, and I can recomend it.

On the subject of a better bearing for the Audiophile, I have managed to obtained a new bearing assembly which to use as a pattern, however as I had to remove the driver board and coil assembly from my own unit I decided to keep the newly aquired bearing and to use the old one from my 1200 to dismantle.
This is where I got quite a suprise I noticed a wear mark on the spindle and used my 0.001mm swiss micrometer to measure the wear, sure enough approx 0.005mm was detected. On cleaning all risidual oil from the phos bronze bush and reinserting the spindle I could detect at least 1+1/2 thou of movement. So you see there is room for improvement, most certainly if you are going to upgrade to the copper mat. which incidentally also has a relieved centre portion for the label.