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

I have a PRC-4 and have added Vaseline to the ends of the two tubes that connect to the jar as well as around the jar lid. This seems to increase suction very slightly. I also added a tiny black rubber washer to the top of the thread spindle to provide some friction which prevents the spool from spinning freely.

Very occasionally the arms skips 1/16th of an inch as it cleans the LP, so I just move it manually and redo that section. I don't know why it does it.

Other than that, I'm not having any problems. Could you describe what you have done and the problems you have had?

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

Fjferal: Thanks for sharing this info. You have given me a few ideas that I might try on my PRC4 - although to date I have not seen any damaged records, but I do get the occasional skip. One question - do you run the platter CCW again since that was not the source of the problem?

Fjferal, I enjoyed reading your post. Your persistence has paid off. I forgot to add that I also put a tiny bit of Vaseline on the magnet under the arm wand. This seems to make its motion smoother. My wand skips about 5% of the time and I've never seen it leave marks on the surface of an LP.

I'm curious why you didn't send your unit back at Loricraft's expense. I once contacted them about the rubber label cover that I've seen on other units, but I never got one with mine. They said they would send one free of charge. It never arrived. My US dealer simply said contact Loricraft directly. That's a bit frustrating.

I'm intrigued about the decoupling of the motor from the box. Has this made the unit even quieter? I never run my PRC-4 in CCW direction. Doesn't placing the nozzle on the outer edge of the LP to run toward the center (like with playing an actual LP on a tt) accomplish the same thing? I do this for my second rinse step, ie. place the nozzle on the outer edge of the LP until it hits the label and then I place it on the inner grooves and let it run to the outer groove, effectively giving the vacuum longer contact and in both directions. There is no trace of moisture left and no static build up.

I once described the Loricraft and the Odysee RCM to a car buff friend of mine. I told him that both are expensive, the latter being more and that the Loricraft seemed perhaps a bit more finicky and less of an engineering machine - very much like a Porshe/BMW compared to a Jaguar or Morgan. I asked him which he would prefer to own, and he said, "No question, the English machine. Quirks, character and all." Your experience seems to sum up his preference perfectly.

The Loricraft is so far superior to my former VPI 16.5, it's not funny. It's not an Odysee or Keith Monks, but it is less expensive.

Fjferal,

I also noticed that slight marking of some LP's when my PRC3 was new (6-7 years ago). A tip from someone here to reduce "VTF" to zero eliminated the problem on my machine. You obviously had to do more, but at a minimum I think LC should revise the operating instructions. Downforce on the arm is not required for effective cleaning. The vacuum alone provides all the contact that's needed.

Peter,
Interesting car analogies. My own two favorite vehicles have been a Mazda RX-8 and a Land Rover. Each a bit quirky and requiring user input, each irresistible and a superb performer once you made the effort to understand them.