Motor and spindle bearing for DIY turntable

For $900 you can not get anywhere near the quality of a Teres, unless you build a Lenco. Since the bearing is the key component that everything else is "riding" on, why would you want to get the cheaps there?

Now, having said that, I do have a bearing design that I have not tried yet. I think it would be very comparable to the Teres bearing, as it is a similar design. The only reason I have not tried it is I'm having a hard time finding a machinist to turn it for me. The guy who designed it had it made for $200. If you live in an area with a decent machine shop, you might want to give it a shot. I'd be happy to email the drawings to you. But still, unless you do the Lenco project, it's hard to do it for $900.

So, If I were you, I'd spend several days reading this thread: [url=http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1075644493&read&3&4&]Lenco[/url]before I did anything. If this thread was here when I built mine, I might have gone in a totally different direction.

If you want to make a decent main bearing for a low cost DIY TT, take a large brass bolt, and drill a 1/4"hole down the center. Polish it up inside, and use a long 1/4" non-tapered roller from a roller bearing. Push this into your platter all the way through, and it is your spindle. Get a brass nut that fits the brass bolt, and bolt it to the center of your plinth. Put a small ball bearing in the bottom of the hole, add oil, put in the spindle/platter.

You might have to try this a couple of times to get the bearing clearances just the way you want them.

It's about the cheapest way to go, and alot of older TTs had bearings very similar to this. The 1/4" spindle diameter is not as heavy duty as some of the newer bearings, but if low cost and basic workability are the criteria, then this will work for you. It is not going to unseat any of the world championship TTs.

For the motor, I'd recommend just getting an AC synchronous motor from an Goodwill turntable, and using that. Make a pulley that is correct diameter for your platter. Most sub-$1k turntables use basic AC synchronous motors.

Winggo,
Why not try a new spindle bearing and shaft for the SL-1200mk2? It will cost you less than $30 from KAB USA ( http://www.kabusa.com/ACCESSS.htm#pg2a ). The spindle bearing is a massive 1/4" polished stainless steel shaft closely machined through a 1" long bronze bearing. See a picture at http://www.kabusa.com/gif/spindle.jpg .

Please tell us more about your design.

- Harald

If you are trying to save money, just buy a pre-built table (pro-ject, rega, et al.) - you are not going to be able to build something better for much less $.

the point of DIY is not to make it cheaper, but to make it better. IMNSHO. For a few grand you can have a table that equals stuff that sells for $10k+. (e.g. a DIY teres in this example).

the truly high-end level of vinyl reproduction is not easily achievable via DIY. E.g. things like vacuum record hold down, air-bearings on the platter, air-bearing linear tracking arm, etc.

-Ed

Ed,

Speaking for myself, the point of DIY is to make it better for less AND to have fun along the way.

Cheers,

- Harald

I used pre-owned VPI bearing and platter, Jr. or MKIII for $200 or less. Then I use the Luxman PD-121 turntable to drive the VPI platter I have to make room for 2 turntables sit side by side. I adjust the pitch on the Luxman TT to get correct speed on the VPI platter. If one use lighter platter than VPI then one can use lesser torque direct drive to drive the platter. Direct drive has super quiet motor.

Depending on how much of the turntable you want to build, the Lenco is a great project, and cheap to boot. However, it comes with its own main bearing and motor and drive system. It is an idler-wheel 'table, very quiet, and with unsurpassed speed stability, the key to good performance. The project entails building a plinth from scratch, finding a tonearm, and depending on the tonearm, cutting the corner off the metal top-plate. To go on the cheapie-cheap, match it to a Decca International tonearm (75 euros I believe from Ah! Tjoeb, if still available), very musical; to extract a stunning performance, match it to a Rega tonearm. Usually go for around $100 to $150 on ebay, depending on the week. Check out the "Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot" thread. Whatever the project, DIY certainly introduces a good dose of fun and pride into this hobby!

Here's where I'm at now. I've got a couple of old Pioneer
tts a PL-50 and a PL-35. I've taken the PL-35 apart and I think I can use the motor, spindle/bearing and platter to construct a TT using my own design for the platten and SAMA. I own a small sign shop and I do a lot of work with acrylics so that's the material I will use for the platten, base and SAMA. I will draw the whole thing up on my CAD system and than pull what I need from that to make the files for the CNC. I'll post some pictures when I get along far enough to have something to look at.

Thanks for all the advice.

George (Winggo)

Turntable progress report.

I've just about got my DIY TT done. As I proceeded with the project I made many changes to the original plan. Insead of using acrylic for the base or plinth i ended up using butcher block oak, and I am glad I did. The base turned out beautiful. I glued a number of 1x4 oak boards together, machined (faced) them down to about 3" thick, and then cut the circular shape of the base out of that. I made the arm board out of 1/2" thick black acrylic.

As I stated before I used the motor, spindle and platter from an old Pioneer turntable. I made the motor box/assembly from 1/4" thick black acrylic. I purchased a Rega RB300 arm and a Goldring 1006 cartridge for the unit.

Today is the day the I plan to mount the cartridge and try the turntable out for the first time.

I have some pictures of the process but I do not know how to post them here. I anyone can tell me how I would do that.

Winggo