Tonearm and Anti Skate Question

The inside area where your arm is skipping is called the lead-out groove. If the arm is jumping out of the groove and skipping out that is too much anti-skate, no matter what anyone says. It is normal for anti-skate to pull the arm out a bit when cued up and down, but it should be much less than what you have. It is clear you have too much anti-skate. 

There is no right or wrong amount, this is something we set by ear. Some tone arm designers even omit this, saying essentially it is more trouble than it is worth. I don't agree, but neither do I think it is terribly critical. The vast majority of the time you will be able to play records just fine without it. 

One way to know if it is off, the inside of the groove is the L channel, outside is R. Skating forces pull the arm towards the spindle. So if there is no anti-skate you can expect to hear it first in breakup when louder passages cause the stylus to lose contact with the outer groove wall. If you hear breakup in the R channel then you need more anti-skate. If you hear breakup in the L channel then you have too much anti-skate. 

Finally, you want to be careful to cue up and down smoothly. If you cue up too fast the arm can bounce on the lift, and during the bounce anti-skate will pull it outwards. The last thing you can do is clean the rubber on the lift so it is less slippery.

the question I have is whether anyone know what might be causing this tonearm behavior

Could be the "fishing line" cannot move smoothly on the hook/hanger and created too much anti-skate force.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2475/2780/products/project-replacement-anti-skate-fishing-line-wei...

You can always try Hi-Hi News TEST LP if you want to set up antiskating. 

In your situation it’s probably better to use zero antiskating than too much antiskating.

Thanks everyone for your answers. I might take a look at the "fishing line". It might be stuck. Maybe I should try some lubrication.

Actually, I don’t think I hear the difference between various anti-skate settings, or without anti-skate. Maybe I don’t have good ears. lol.

I might just try leaving out the anti-skate weight for now. I’m more concerned about putting too much pressure on one side of the record groove and causes damage, if I don’t set the anti-skate.

This is actually a rather common problem. For now use your anti skate at the lowest setting to be safe. Clean off the lift and the bottom of the tonearm (were the lift contacts) with brake cleaning fluid or denatured alcohol. Try to gently press down on the end of the lift platform so that it's lift height declines just a little over a record side. This way the tonearm has to go uphill just a little to drift backwards. Usually this is all you have to do. Drifting backwards a little on lift is not a problem. You do want the arm to go straight down when you cue. 

I might take a look at the "fishing line". It might be stuck. Maybe I should try some lubrication.

Also clean the hanger contact surface and use a magnifying glass to inspect if there any roughness or wear out.

I might just try leaving out the anti-skate weight for now. I’m more concerned about putting too much pressure on one side of the record groove and causes damage, if I don’t set the anti-skate.

With your tonearm you might need a bit of antiskating, but in general there are tonearms on the matket without antiskating (professional tonearms) and they are short and long. I have some of them. Professional version of Fidelity-Research FR-64fx PRO does not have antiskating, they say: “if there is a channel imbalance user must increase tracking force by 10%”. 

Another tonearm without antiskating is ‘12 inch Schick tonearm.

Messing with AS is a poor way, not to say a bad way, to compensate for channel imbalance.  But all pivoted tonearms generate a skating force, and skating forces put undue pressure on the L channel or inside groove walls while also causing mistracking of the outer groove wall or R channel (which can usually be heard as R channel distortion).  So damage can result long term if you don't apply at least a tiny amount of AS.  Or I should say that long term damage is minimized if you at least take a shot at using some AS, vs no AS or too much AS.