Want to try an inexpensive clamp?
Go and buy a hockey puck, then pick up a bunch of smal round lead fishing weights. These are usually sold in small bags. Get the puck home and carefully measure out to find DEAD CENTRE. Then take a protractor and rule to measure out a series of spokes from the dead centre out to the edge of the puck. Then measure out along each spoke oh say at 1/2 inch spaces and mark these with dots.
Get a 5/16ths or slightly larger drill bit. If you have access to a drill press and can set depth you will be able to first drill the centre hole for the spindle. Make sure you drill deep enough so that the puck will sit over the turntable spindle and seat flush on record centre. Next drill out each marked demarcation deep enough so that you will be able to fit in the lead ball fishing weights with glue. Again if I recall 5/16ths or about 7-8mm drill bits should do. If the holes are too tight just open them up one size larger.
The puck should slip easily over the spindle but not too loose. I use a 10 ounce puck use by some European leagues. NHL standard pucks are 7 ounces and will work too. I was able to add maybe anther 6-8 ounces of lead balls to my puck and estimated it to be over 1 lb to maybe 1.25 lbs.. No its not that heavy and it won't flatten out warped albums but it connects the LP to the platter and as others say helps dampen resonances in the spindle. Besides it only costs a couple of dollar. 10 ounce pucks often are orange in colour so I painted mine flat black.
Go and buy a hockey puck, then pick up a bunch of smal round lead fishing weights. These are usually sold in small bags. Get the puck home and carefully measure out to find DEAD CENTRE. Then take a protractor and rule to measure out a series of spokes from the dead centre out to the edge of the puck. Then measure out along each spoke oh say at 1/2 inch spaces and mark these with dots.
Get a 5/16ths or slightly larger drill bit. If you have access to a drill press and can set depth you will be able to first drill the centre hole for the spindle. Make sure you drill deep enough so that the puck will sit over the turntable spindle and seat flush on record centre. Next drill out each marked demarcation deep enough so that you will be able to fit in the lead ball fishing weights with glue. Again if I recall 5/16ths or about 7-8mm drill bits should do. If the holes are too tight just open them up one size larger.
The puck should slip easily over the spindle but not too loose. I use a 10 ounce puck use by some European leagues. NHL standard pucks are 7 ounces and will work too. I was able to add maybe anther 6-8 ounces of lead balls to my puck and estimated it to be over 1 lb to maybe 1.25 lbs.. No its not that heavy and it won't flatten out warped albums but it connects the LP to the platter and as others say helps dampen resonances in the spindle. Besides it only costs a couple of dollar. 10 ounce pucks often are orange in colour so I painted mine flat black.