Hello to everybody;
I recently finished my DIY TT and unipivot tonearm. I still have plans to change it a bit, in detail i will put brass weigts underneath the platter and use squash balls as feet. Also, I am working on a schroeder based tonearm. (See other thread)
I put some information on my website , but did not translate everything into english yet. if you have any questions or - what is very welcome - some advice: please reply or email me.
Cheers
Christian.
I recently finished my DIY TT and unipivot tonearm. I still have plans to change it a bit, in detail i will put brass weigts underneath the platter and use squash balls as feet. Also, I am working on a schroeder based tonearm. (See other thread)
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I put some information on my website , but did not translate everything into english yet. if you have any questions or - what is very welcome - some advice: please reply or email me.
Cheers
Christian.
Maybe here's a place to mention how a guy in the composite construction business told me how to create carbon fiber parts.
Let's say you want a C.F. tone arm tube
Get a tube of aluminum and wrap it in the pattern you prefer with fibers using epoxy . If you need to, tease them out of a piece of C.F. fabric. Fabric is available at TAP plastics in the USA.
Obviously the number of layers and pattern are very important.
When the epoxy has set up, etch away the aluminum with an acid that eats up aluminum. Sorry I forgot the kind of acid....
Let's say you want a C.F. tone arm tube
Get a tube of aluminum and wrap it in the pattern you prefer with fibers using epoxy . If you need to, tease them out of a piece of C.F. fabric. Fabric is available at TAP plastics in the USA.
Obviously the number of layers and pattern are very important.
When the epoxy has set up, etch away the aluminum with an acid that eats up aluminum. Sorry I forgot the kind of acid....
Hi
Thank you.
Acrylic is very, very good when it comes to machining it. One has to lath/drill/mill it at loww speed, but then ... wet sanding and polishing....
When we build models of productes (i am a industrial design student) we use acrylic very often even when we paint it afterwards because it is so good to work with.
Apart from that i just like the look... even if it is heavy it does not look blockish... Soundwise everything depends on matching things: my unipivot sounds very lively and is therefore a good match for the acrylic, wich is more dampening than e.g. metal.
The acrylic is way too expensive but i definitely wanted it.
The platter and the bearing is sold by thomas scheu; i got the platter relatively cheaply from ebay. I will put another thin one underneath, in which i will drill six holes to but brass weight there (like michell, bluenote etc.)
The bearinmg is a inverted one with a aluminiumoxide ball, teflon plate and apart from that steel. I had a rega bearing in it before and there are differences (i could not believe...)
The construction of the arm: it is a 1/2" wound carbon pipe. Then you may see loads of acrylic. The brass counterweight is "decoupled" by acrylic from the arm tube.
I got wires cheaply from Thomas Scheu, before I used laquered 0.05mm solid core copper wire, but i broke it twice...
I tried several arrangements of mass to make the arm stable and not swinging, now it works greatly. The centre of mass is at the heigt of the sylus point and the bearing point is about 5 mm above. The length is 12" and at the moment i do not use any antisakting at all because it sounds better to my ears. Any advice is welcome here.
When laminating carbon by myself (we do that here at university) i will not get a good surface and need much too much epoxy, what makes the advantages of carbon go away... of course a conic tube like wilson benesch arm has advantages (resonances etc) but bought pipes are better in all other concerns. Theoretically, there are conic pipes outthere for model airplanes (how would you call that) and (heavier) one could use fishing rods. I kept it somple and bought a straight pipe.
The turntable is limited by my phono stage, at the moment. but i can tell you that it performs ways beyond a rega planar.
cheers
Christian.
Thank you.
Acrylic is very, very good when it comes to machining it. One has to lath/drill/mill it at loww speed, but then ... wet sanding and polishing....
When we build models of productes (i am a industrial design student) we use acrylic very often even when we paint it afterwards because it is so good to work with.
Apart from that i just like the look... even if it is heavy it does not look blockish... Soundwise everything depends on matching things: my unipivot sounds very lively and is therefore a good match for the acrylic, wich is more dampening than e.g. metal.
The acrylic is way too expensive but i definitely wanted it.
The platter and the bearing is sold by thomas scheu; i got the platter relatively cheaply from ebay. I will put another thin one underneath, in which i will drill six holes to but brass weight there (like michell, bluenote etc.)
The bearinmg is a inverted one with a aluminiumoxide ball, teflon plate and apart from that steel. I had a rega bearing in it before and there are differences (i could not believe...)
The construction of the arm: it is a 1/2" wound carbon pipe. Then you may see loads of acrylic. The brass counterweight is "decoupled" by acrylic from the arm tube.
I got wires cheaply from Thomas Scheu, before I used laquered 0.05mm solid core copper wire, but i broke it twice...
I tried several arrangements of mass to make the arm stable and not swinging, now it works greatly. The centre of mass is at the heigt of the sylus point and the bearing point is about 5 mm above. The length is 12" and at the moment i do not use any antisakting at all because it sounds better to my ears. Any advice is welcome here.
When laminating carbon by myself (we do that here at university) i will not get a good surface and need much too much epoxy, what makes the advantages of carbon go away... of course a conic tube like wilson benesch arm has advantages (resonances etc) but bought pipes are better in all other concerns. Theoretically, there are conic pipes outthere for model airplanes (how would you call that) and (heavier) one could use fishing rods. I kept it somple and bought a straight pipe.
The turntable is limited by my phono stage, at the moment. but i can tell you that it performs ways beyond a rega planar.
cheers
Christian.
Update
Hello to everybody,
i changed a few things meanwhile.
First, i put brass weight underneath the platter, second i use polyamide string now. great improvements.
Here's a picture:
Also, there are a few diy turntables on my gallery now. www.krishu.de_>_DIY_TT_Gallery
Cheers
Christian.
Hello to everybody,
i changed a few things meanwhile.
First, i put brass weight underneath the platter, second i use polyamide string now. great improvements.
Here's a picture:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Also, there are a few diy turntables on my gallery now. www.krishu.de_>_DIY_TT_Gallery
Cheers
Christian.
Very stylish!
Congrats, Chishu!
Good example of straightforward engineering on the remarkable aesthetic background! Some technical questions: how the brass weights are connected to the platter? How much weight is added? Have you evaluate the sonic contribution of each element (added weight and new string) apart? What is polyamide string?
Thanks,
Michael
Congrats, Chishu!
Good example of straightforward engineering on the remarkable aesthetic background! Some technical questions: how the brass weights are connected to the platter? How much weight is added? Have you evaluate the sonic contribution of each element (added weight and new string) apart? What is polyamide string?
Thanks,
Michael
Hi Michael
on the lower side of the platter there is a groove (1cm wide and 1cm deep), where I put in some pvc "dowels" which I made by myself. The position was set with the help of a CAD stencil. The brass weights have a threaded hole and are srewed into the dowels. each brass weight is exactly 303 grms, there are six of them added now. They are cnc machined.
The Improvement was quite huge. The music was less nervous and plays at ease now.
The polyamide string is "invisible sewing yarn" and was about $2/200mtrs. The string is less elastic than the rubber belt i used before, it has less grip, too. This causes that less motor vibration is transferred to the platter. The improvements were not as dramaticla as the above mentioned, but by testing speed with my strobe light the speed accuracy was much better. This is sonically noticable when long high notes are played like piano, bright female voice or so. I tested it with 1kHz test tone, too and the improvement was clearly audible. The rubber belt tended to oscillate.
The Platine Verdier as well as Amazon Tuntables use a similar string.
See also thread "Lets make a DIY audio TT", there is something said about (vcr) tape belt, if I recall correctly.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Christian.
on the lower side of the platter there is a groove (1cm wide and 1cm deep), where I put in some pvc "dowels" which I made by myself. The position was set with the help of a CAD stencil. The brass weights have a threaded hole and are srewed into the dowels. each brass weight is exactly 303 grms, there are six of them added now. They are cnc machined.
The Improvement was quite huge. The music was less nervous and plays at ease now.
The polyamide string is "invisible sewing yarn" and was about $2/200mtrs. The string is less elastic than the rubber belt i used before, it has less grip, too. This causes that less motor vibration is transferred to the platter. The improvements were not as dramaticla as the above mentioned, but by testing speed with my strobe light the speed accuracy was much better. This is sonically noticable when long high notes are played like piano, bright female voice or so. I tested it with 1kHz test tone, too and the improvement was clearly audible. The rubber belt tended to oscillate.
The Platine Verdier as well as Amazon Tuntables use a similar string.
See also thread "Lets make a DIY audio TT", there is something said about (vcr) tape belt, if I recall correctly.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Christian.
Nothing beats pure mass
Hi Christian,
Thank you for your description, threaded connection supposed the best for mechanical coupling. Just my thought: why don't you try to add six more brass weights?- seems you have enough space. I red once an article about monstrous french TT "Satie"- they claimed 40 kg platter sounds better than 30 kg one - nothing beats pure mass!
Another point: your feet cones are pierced directly to the wooden platform - I'd prefer more predictable contact with the brass discs in between. I did it for my TT sitting on the marble plate - works good to me.
Regards,
Michael
Hi Christian,
Thank you for your description, threaded connection supposed the best for mechanical coupling. Just my thought: why don't you try to add six more brass weights?- seems you have enough space. I red once an article about monstrous french TT "Satie"- they claimed 40 kg platter sounds better than 30 kg one - nothing beats pure mass!
Another point: your feet cones are pierced directly to the wooden platform - I'd prefer more predictable contact with the brass discs in between. I did it for my TT sitting on the marble plate - works good to me.
Regards,
Michael
Hello to everybody;
meanwhile I changed something on my DIY TT, mainly the platter and its weights;
I saw the links to the pictures in my first posts are broken, so here is the brass weights platter again:
I replaced those brass weights by a really heavy and nicely machined aluminium platter. I milled an inner platter for that and put the aluminium platter underneath the acrylic one. In the same time I polished the acrylic platter.
The belt now is an invisible polyamide string (way better than that rubber belt), the motor is still a pll-regulated DC type.
More detailed information can be found on my website.
A new tonearm will be finished around christmas (a schroeder clone), I'll be back here to report.
Cheers
Christian.
meanwhile I changed something on my DIY TT, mainly the platter and its weights;
I saw the links to the pictures in my first posts are broken, so here is the brass weights platter again:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I replaced those brass weights by a really heavy and nicely machined aluminium platter. I milled an inner platter for that and put the aluminium platter underneath the acrylic one. In the same time I polished the acrylic platter.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
The belt now is an invisible polyamide string (way better than that rubber belt), the motor is still a pll-regulated DC type.
More detailed information can be found on my website.
A new tonearm will be finished around christmas (a schroeder clone), I'll be back here to report.
Cheers
Christian.
, all you need now is this.
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