Trans-Fi Terminator Tonearm: 2019 Update

@qwin Thanks a million for the drawing!  As you indicted, the mounting slots are for your TT. I will use  the existing mounting slots for my arm. 

There have been a few occasions when I accidentally bumped into the far end of the cantilevered slider. And there would be a slight twisting at the mountinf plate, not enough to cause a cartridge mis-alignment. But I did wonder about the structural integirty of the plate. You solution solved it. Brilliant!

I noticed the Mounting plate twisted when I was levelling the manifold/Slider. I would get it just right, hovering in the middle and when I tightened the Pivot Bolt the plate twisted and the slider moved at speed to the right. So almost impossible to set accurately. Every time I adjusted VTA it would throw it out.

If you notice, I have turned the slots through 90 deg.
This allows me to position a cartridge anywhere in the long Wand mounting slots and make adjustment at the Mounting plate to accommodate this.
The stock slots are about compatibility with the most number of decks.
Make the slot positions to suit your own deck and run them front to back, in my opinion, this is more useful. I used M5 bolts in 6mm slots. This gives more than enough wiggle room to align the manifold angle.

Wow, I don’t think my Missus would go for a 150L smoothing tank in the living room.
My pump has two outlets, the output oscillates from one to the other.
Common practice is to use a "Y" connector and join the two, before entering the tank at a single location. I am going to try feeding the tank with both outputs individually. Joining two 4mm tubes into one 4mm tube must restrict flow or cause back pressure.
Then I’ll try filling the tank with Polystyrene balls 4 to 6mm diameter.
The air will have to find its way through all the fine passages between the balls, or it may even act like a fluid bed, the air lifting the very light balls. I’m not sure if the flow/pressure is sufficient to do this, so its a suck it and see.
I will fit an inline filter, after the Tank, to stop any small particles going down the line into the manifold. It wouldn’t take much to block the holes in the manifold.

In my case, 60L tank vol was the limit of the original pump. From there on It was a case of searching for the right pump. I am using a Hiblow 40 currently. The nice thing about the Terminator is it works in low pressure, so less stress on connections and no problems with condensation.

I also tried filling tank cotton balls. This would moderate air flow, but it will also increase pressure. You’ll know when to back off on the balls.

How is the Terminator performing on your bespoke SL -1200? How does it compare to the other pivot arms you have? 

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems that you are reacquainting yourself with the Terminator after a long layoff. And you are in the process of further optimizing it. I wondered if you have reached out to Vic about his crazy trampoline wand? Or if you have contacted Anfrey about the carbon fiber wand?

Yes, you're correct, I fell out with the Terminator, due to difficulty in setting it up and then maintaining this correct set up. I was never happy with the silk covered Litz wire or the recommended way of dressing it. Also I took my gear to HiFi meetings at least a couple of times a year, and a set up, every time I moved the deck didn't suit. A pivot arm just worked out better for me, the wife was scared stiff of touching the Terminator. Having said all that, when it was on song it bettered anything else I had owned.
During a recent bout of inactivity, with no other DIY HiFi projects on the go, I decided to have one last go at sorting my Terminator. It was during this set up, that I realized the cause of many of my woe's, the Mounting plate was flexing when levelling the Manifold/Sled or changing VTA. Once I realized this, it gave me some new impetus to sort the arm out.
I used to swap ideas quite a bit with Vic, he loaned me his rubber band Slider, were the pivot pins sat on rubber bands.
I have seen his latest wand on his web site, but like with the rubber band Slider, it doesn't sit well with my way of thinking. To much damping and ways of errors creping in to VTA, Azimuth and VTF.
I don't like the Nylon Pivot pins, I prefer Steel pins running in a Nylon "V".
I tried to contact Andrey, re the Carbon wand, but he is not answering emails from the West, he may not even be receiving them. 

I got the modified Terminator Arm finished and mounted to my DIY DD Turntable.
It's rock solid, with the new Mounting Plate.



I need to fine tune things to find the sweet spot and make up my mind if I prefer the sound with/without the 3mm Copper mat.

I mounted the cartridge as far forward as possible, to reduce the effect of different record thickness on VTA.

The external power supply I made still works fine after more than a decade, it’s the only clue that the deck has a Technics SL-1200 DD motor and control circuit in it.
The Platter and its Bearing came from a Pro-Ject RPM9 deck, I made an adaptor to allow it to work with the Technics motor. The platter and bearing is much, much superior to the basic Technics SL-1200 or the SL-1200G_ _ for that matter. The bearing is the one used on the current top of the line Pro-Ject Turntables.