Tri planar and shelter 901 and Verdier

Hi DougDeacon,

I was looking for a way to talk Tenmus out of moving the armwand, but your argument is right to the point.

Happy New Year all!

Hello Tenmus,

Raul's suggestion is very good. Verdier should be able to help with mounting the arm.

As far as I can tell the dampening fluid is optional and is provided for those who prefer a slightly less dynamic presentation.

DougDeacon has written a very informative thread about setting up and using the TriPlanar. A search here will quickly pull it up.

Hi Tenmus,

Doug is the really the more experienced with this tonearm, I'm still looking at mine in the box. Perhaps he will chime in when the fog of Christmas Cheer has worn off. In the mean time, I'll try to fight through the fog.

From the directions and looking at the way the jig is used I would say that the pivot-to-spindle distance is set if the jig is held securely while marking for the mounting holes.

As for moving the armwand forward or backward I would not do that since you would change the effective length of the arm. I'm not sure if you are asking this question because you are worried about the armboard being too far away from the platter? I do not have hands-on experience with the Verdier but it does look to me that the armboard can be turned closer to platter by loosening the mounting bolt. You would probably want to loosen that bolt while you line up the Triplanar jig. Once you get the holes properly aligned on the armboard then I would carefully snug down the bolt to hold it in place while you mark the mounting holes for the arm. Turning the armboard will give the same effect you are looking for without changing the armtube length.

Please note that I'm going on pictures of your table so check this all out for yourself before doing anything permanent. I'm guessing that I'm close to how this should work as there has to be a way to mount 9" and 12" arms on that table.

DougDeacon, when you refer to setting the pivot-to-spindle distance after mounting the arm are you suggesting that the jig is just close or is this just a check that the distance is correct? The instructions don't seem to suggest that such and adjustment is necessary if the jig is used. Still, I could see this being very easy with a pivoting armboard.

Actually, Greg, the installation is very straight forward. The mounting jig is very simple and almost fool proof. A picture would be self-explanatory but I've not played around with posting pictures here. Depending on one's mechanical aptitude and tool availability it should be less than an hour of work even with tapping the holes. But I do agree that if one is not sure experienced help should be sought out. Either way I think it would be wise to understand the process.

Yes, I'm curious about that statement as well since the instructions don't mention that as a next step after mounting with the jig.

Hi Greg,

I know exactly what you mean and I don't want to imply that this task should be taken up with nothing more than an electric drill and some large felt markings. But if one has the capability to mark the positions using the jig and center punch, then drill and tap the holes on a stationary drill press it does become a standard milling operation.

I've been looking closer at the supplied jig and it is quite possible that one could be off by a millimeter either way. The jig's manufacture is fairly precise but there is enough play that could lead to some small error in placement. This would make it quite important to be as exacting as possible when mounting on a fixed armboard. As you say, measure twice (and perhaps thrice) and drill once. With pivoting armboards this tolerance is a bit more forgiving as the jig will probably get you to within a millimeter. Then the fine adjustment could be made with slight movement of the armboard much the same way as the SME slide works. While true that the pivot is traveling in an arch, in the limit of a few millimeters this should be of no consequence. This may be what Doug was referring to when he mentions measuring the distance after mounted and it would make perfect sense to do so.

But he's teasing us with his silence! Probably out fighting the mall-ites.