Give me a straight Doc how bad is it?


So I’m trying to nude my Demon DL – 103r cart in preparation for each new wood body. I watched all the videos and read all the forums and everything is going great body is coming off real easy then all of a sudden boom!! I dropped the cart out of my hand falls maybe 2 inches and bent the cantilever is ever so slightly, maybe half a millimeter to the side. It didn’t seem to be bent in the middle of the aluminum tube, just generally bent to the right, so I gently bent it back ever so slowly and got it looking parallel to the body and in alignment with the coils along its long axis.

There seems to be equal play in all directions, as much as one can be equal with their eyes, so I’m going to give it a try but am I screwed? Am I just kidding myself here and should I go ahead and buy a new one. I’d hate to install this in the wood body and it not work right.
last_lemming
you're lucky it has round tip. it will work, however i'd suggest carefully positioning when setting up. use mirror scale so you see if there any azimuth angle. with elliptical tip you will most-likely jeopardize your records. 


Play it and see.

I used to see bent cantilevers all the time when I did consumer electronics repair putting myself through college. I've straightened many of them. As long as there isn't a dent in the cantilever you are fine. A dent will cause it to be weaker and also causes it to not sound right. 
If it were me, I'd have Soundsmith take a look....I'm sure the cost would be very reasonable if there is one at all.
I bent the cantilever in the same manor on a Shelter 901 while cleaning my table and like you straightened it and moved on, seemed to work as new but the thought of am I getting everything soon caused me to send it in and had it rebuilt by Soundsmith which turned out was a better cart overall after the rebuild.

The cantilever does not have a crimp in it.  I looked at the whole assembly through one of those high power coin loops, way more than the typical 10x and I saw no visible traces of the bend or me bending it back.

But after I thought about it awhile and I ended up buying another 103r.  I figured I would leave the new body alone and just use it as is and with my fixed on put it in the wood body in my extra head shell - if it works, great, I can do some comparisons.

Just pretend it didn't happen, and listen.
For all you know, that slight bend of the cantilever was present even before you dropped the cartridge.
Nice thread title...

   
Yeah, they don't really like you editing that bit. Go figure.