Installing A Well Tempered Reference Tone Arm

So awhile ago I was looking at my table and I realized the arm I had did not have a carbon fiber arm tube, so this was not the Reference arm attached to it even though it had the corian plinth. Now I just happened to be looking on USAudiomart and saw a Reference arm for sale! I sent messages, came to an acceptable price and ordered it.

The plan was for it to show up and I would squirt some silicone goop into the cup and I would be ready to go. Well things did not work that way at all. The seller did an admirable job of building a framework from closed cell styrofoam to protect the arm, but that created some unexpected issues. The first problem I noticed is the arm wand was facing the wrong way, and then I noticed a broken mono-filament lead that forms the arm pivot. This meant a restring job, which is something I have never done.

So the first step was to unbolt the gantry the arm hangs from so I could remove it and pull the mono-filament. When I got the arm wand off and flipped it over there are two holes that go through the disc that sits in the silicone and then two screws underneath that the line attaches to. Easy peasy to attach it. I went to the sporting goods store and got 10 pound line which was just the right diameter. I tied a knot and slipped it over the bolt and tightened it down. I had cut my lengths long so I had extra lead to work with if I made a mistake.

The next step was seeing how much travel the silicone cup has as its threaded into the base and allows for quite change in paddle depth. Well here is where little popcorn balls of styrofoam can ruin your day. Apparently I did not get them all cleaned out of the threads, as they were everywhere on the arm. When you start spinning the cup to check travel, well one of them can get caught in the threads literally freezing it in place. I tried some silicone based lubricant to free it, and it did work. I then cleaned the threads and started screwing it back in. It made it half way though its range again, and it really froze this time! I sprayed it and let it set overnight. Tried to move it in the morning and no joy. I traded messages with the seller and learned that isopropyl alcohol works well to clean threads in Delrin. I soaked both sides of the plate and sure enough it turned right off. Now the cup uses a sticky damping material to attach the cup to the plate and in the process of trying to turn the assembly the glue failed, so I had to heat  up the adhesive tape with a hair dryer and add a contact type cement to the surface to reattach it. An hour in a couple of clamps did the job.

Now we were back on track as the cup was fixed. I then threaded the line through the two blocks that create the anti skate device on the WT arm. One line goes to a screw with a washer and sets the static height of the paddle in the silicone. The other one goes around a shaft and then terminates on another bolt on the underside of the knob for that shaft. That line lets you raise and lower that side of the disc so you can make azimuth adjustments. Only trick was to get clear access to the bolt I had to open the bars that set the anti skate to the right position, as there is a thumb wheel that spreads them to change the anti-skate force. If they are too far in you cant get to the bolt, and if too far out the one edge will create an awkward angle for your screwdriver.

I then did a trial assembly with the arm back in the cup so I could get an initial setting on length, so I knew at what depth it would set in the cup. I also put the cup at the center placement of its travel so I would be able to raise or lower it an equal distance. Once I was satisfied with the trial settings I took the gantry off again so I could fill the cup with silicone. Working with 100,000 CST silicone is an exercise in patience. It took me an hour or so to get the cup filled, then I put the arm back together and it was time to install it on the table. I put it on, roughed in azimuth, was satisfied how things looked and then trimmed off the extra mono-filament I had on each bolt.

Last step for the evening was to bolt on the Ikeda cartridge. Before I did that I metered the leads to me sure I had continuity. Got readings on all four leads so i should be good. I set tracking weight since that was a simple job, and I am in the process of cueing it down on a record so I can get a look at azimuth. Setting azimuth on this table takes some time, as you make small adjustments and let it settle before thinking about making another.

But the hard work is done, and I have successfully completed my first re-stringing of a WT arm. Its not horribly hard, but its nothing I want to do on a regular basis. I did install the Ikeda 9 Kawami cartridge on the table, set VTF roughed in VTA, and set azimuth. The ultra cool thing is sound quality with this cartridge took a nice leap forward. And some unusual squeaking while the diamond was in the groove that I had with this cartridge being used with a couple of records completely disappeared.  This cartridge sounds very very nice on this arm, and I am glad I was able to put this combo together.