Thread source for Loricraft RCM's;also seeking f/b

I don't check in here much anymore so didn't see this post until now. It's not real clear to me what the problem is. Do you mean it won't swing out? Do you mean it won't stop moving out? The mechanism is fairly simple and unless the motor unit is defective you can probably make things right yourself if you have some mechanical skills.
If you can clarify the problem one of us may be able to come up with a solution. Cheers. Al

Warning - this is going to be a long post.

When the RCM arrived I unpacked it and set it up with no problems. First impressions after a few washings were that it was quiet and very effective, leaving no static buildup on washed LP's. After a few hundred LP's I noted poor sound on an LP after washing which had been visually NM beforehand. Close inspection showed an obvious pattern of marks on the vinyl. I carried on and some time later the same thing happened again. I took pictures and e-mailed the factory. To their credit I was contacted immediately by Terry, the Managing Director. In North American English I suspect he is the owner. He offered to have me ship the unit back to them, at their expense, and they would make it right. We went through a trouble-shooting session and at the end of it he suggested that I try a few things myself. Terry said they had seen similar marks from very early versions of their machines but not since then.
Like Peter, I also had trouble with the arm 'skipping', mainly when spinning the platter clock-wise. With counterclock-wise rotation I have never had that problem.

Those are the 2 problems I have had to deal with. I will detail my solutions momentarily. After my initial contact with the factory I was pretty much left on my own to use trial and error to come up with solutions. Fortunately I'm mechanically competent and very persistent (not pig-headed, of course).

Let's start with the lesser problem first - the skipping cleaning wand. It's really aggravating but it doesn't damage records. I determined that the axes of the wand and of the platter were not perfectly parallel so I opened up the unit and shimmed the platter until they were lined up properly. This seemed to help. I had been running the LC with the deck as close to horizontal as I could get it so the next thing I did was drop the front of the unit so that the wand had to go 'uphill' as it was crossing the LP. That was what really got things to the point where the skipping wand is a very minor issue. It probably happens 5% of the time now and I can live with that. I don't know how much tilt there is on the unit. If you choose to try that it will be up to you to decide how much tilt is enough.

On to the major problem - the marks put on the records. I tried increasing and reducing wand tracking force. Marks continue. As advised, I stop running the platter CCW. Marks continue. By this time I've been inside the unit 5-6 times. Are you aware that that lovely wood box is made from veneered MDF? Every time you remove the screws holding the top in place you take a bit of MDF 'sawdust' away. Fortunately all the screws are still holding but you don't want to be doing cover removal 50 times. I tried tightening the wand bearings. It seemed to help but the marks continued.

So there I am with a pricey RCM that eats LP's. Nothing I've tried has completely fixed the problem. Factory doesn't reply to e-mails. I'm starting to think I've got an expensive boat anchor.

I keep looking at the damaged LP's. There's a pattern to the marks. I keep washing LP's. One day I notice that there is a vibration in the wand that I can feel in my fintertips as I place/remove the wand. The light bulb goes on - maybe the wand is vibrating enough to create the marks. I go back inside. The suction pump is mounted on a flexible base and then a bumper stop is placed between the head of the pump and the top of the box. Hmmm... the flex mount reduces vibration but the bump stop feeds it all right back in to the whole unit. So I remove the bump stop. Less vibration. Fewer damaged LP's. I think we're on to something here. Back we go inside again. Completely decouple the pump from the box by sitting it on some foam and some terry towel. Almost no wand vibration! Even better, no more damaged LP's.

Here is how I have the unit set up at present, with no changes in quite a while and none planned as it seems to be working alright: friction material under the spool of thread to prevent spinning; zero or slightly negative tracking force (the vacuum will suck the wand onto the LP); I tightened up the bearings in the wand a bit so that they bind slightly; unit is tilted slightly down at the front; vacuum pump is now completely decoupled from the box - this means it is loose and couldn't be shipped but it's a small price to pay.

While I'm at it I might as well describe my washing routine. I put an LP on my old slot-style RCM and give it a couple of rotations with a felt brush to remove loose material. Then I move over to the LC and do 1,2 or 3 wash passes and a rinse pass. I always do at least 1 pass in each direction. Dry off the rim of the LP with a piece of paper towel and audition the disc. I'm sure there are many good cleaning fluid formulae out there - mine is 10 ml of VPI concentrate to 1 litre of lab-grade water. I make up small batches of cleaning fluid with 25% lab-grade (99.9%) isopropyl alcohol and enough Kodak PhotoFlow to prevent puddling. My rinse fluid is lab-grade water with 5% lab-grade alcohol and about 1/2 as much Photoflow. I may try Triton X-114 as my surfactant sometime as I think the Photoflow is a bit greasy but otherwise I am content with my cleaning fluid formula. Of course you can only put alcohol on vinyl.

Overall I am now very satisfied with the LC. It is very effective at cleaning; it is quiet; it now does no harm to my LP's. Every additional pass I make improves the sound - especially on dirty LP's.

For those of you patient enough to get this far - I appreciate your persistence. For some very interesting ideas on tweaking these machines check out
http://mintlp.com/wild/loricraft.htm . Cheers. Al

There was another reason why I didn't go direct for a small amount of thread. As I mentioned in my initial post the Gudebrod thread is becoming hard to find (for whatever reason). I put a lot of time and effort into trying to source thread locally with no success. With the lifecycle of products being so short now and inventory being so tightly controlled, in a couple of years when I might need more thread I have no assurance I will be able to get it so I got a lifetime's supply now. In the big scheme of things the cost was trivial and now I can forget about the issue. Cheers. Al

Canam (12/12) I usually do at least 1 pass in each direction. I always start the arm at the edge of the label and go 'uphill' to the outer edge of the LP both CW & CCW. Al

Peterayer 12/11/11 re return of unit - I did consider it. Loricraft is clearly a cottage industry. That's not necessarily a bad thing but the cottage is 5,000 miles away. Since they were initially quite helpful I thought I would have a go myself. Also, if this unit was iffy I couldn't convince myself that the next one would be better. Also - it was an intermittent problem. They are hell to deal with if you have any type of repair experience and Loricraft could be at it forever trying to come up with a fix.
re decoupling pump - it didn't make the machine audibly quieter but it greatly reduced vibration both in the arm and in the whole case.
re starting the arm at the outer edge of the LP - You likely get the same results as with changing the direction of the platter. I may try that sometime. You seem to have the benefit of ending up with a dry disc. I wet mine quite thoroughly and always have to wipe the perimeter when finished doing both sides of an LP.
re other brands - I agree that the LC is a big step up from the 16.5 . If there are more effective RCM's out there, I don't want to know about them. I could have added a lot of items to the collection for the money I spent on the Loricraft. RCM's that do things like automatically apply fluid or clean both sides at once don't interest me because of the complications and loss of operator control. Al

dhcod 12/13/11 That's great that you had an easy time getting thread. It was largely cost that led me elsewhere and to posting here about it. The last time I looked, Smart wanted $10 for 100 yd. of thread. Then I would have to have it shipped to the Great White North. I have a friend with a PRC-4 as well and for $60 all in we got a 6-pack of 450 yd. spools. We'll never have to think about thread again. Al

peterayer 12/14/11 If you are talking about the 2 hoses outside the catch bottle, I guess it would make a theoretical difference. That extra inch of tubing leaves you with a bit of wiggle room when it comes to movement in the arm or removing the lid from the catch bottle. I plan to leave mine as it is. The piece of tubing inside the catch bottle is there to prevent used fluid from being sucked into the pump and should be left in place at all times.
mintlp has some interesting ideas for increasing suction. I have not tried any. Now that my rig seems to be working I plan to just enjoy it as is. I'll leave the hot-rodding for other parts of the audio system. Al