DIY linear tonearm

guys ,

I'm working on a carriage here .. made out of a 6MM aluminum sheet .
start looking good already .

I'm going for a straight armwand , so I can swap other wands of different
materials in the furture . just to figure what suits my taste .

What lenght I should use ?? I have been reading the thread through
but couldn't get it clear for myself :rolleyes:

TIA ,
Paul
 
armwand material

I have several options for armwand material :

1- 6MM solid glas rod .
2- 6MM solid brass rod .
3- 6MM brass tube .

I need to source graphite rod ( carbon ) .

another option of course is a wooden rod , or partialy wood
etc. etc .

the easy starter would be the 6MM solid glas wand .

can someone please put me on the right track ;)

I believe I have been reading that the carbon and glas wand are to
be prefered . is that correct ?
 
the weight of carriage + wand in the picture is 20 Gram .. add 5 Gram for an average cartridge .. couple Grams for a shell .. pff.. not sure if this will work
out .

Think I better drill some more holes in the aluminum carriage to save some weight there too .

THX !
Paul
 

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I weighed my carriage with a piece of carbon fibre rod (3/16") about 8" long.
You can see it on the pics I posted. It was just over 20 gms.

The carriage is made of 3/16' plexiglass. I have a triangle shape, but if I can
leave the tail of the arm at the same height as the front...(again like my pics)
instead of a triangle, I can make a "V" shape....this should shave some weight off.
 
A hint to all building,


Try and make the tail of the wand longer so that you can use a smaller counterweight thus lowering horizontal mass while increasing vertical mass. I use a 6" wand it should be set so that for the specific cartridge the counterweight is almost at the end of the tail, this will mean different weights for different cartridges, I've offered as much useful information as possible here so it's up to you folks now :).



Colin
 
how can you compare the friction of an air bearing and a mechanical bearing? Best regards Moray James.

I think it's not so easy to measure a force this small .. however , I think in practice one could use a small PC fan to create a side force ( air flow ) just to figure between different approaches . I'n not into physics , but using some common sense should tell is what's going on .

I think :p

Paul