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VPI TNT static problem, Why?

My new reference deck is a older TNT3 that I have had VPI upgrade the tone arm wiring and rebuild the motor. This deck was an upgrade from a Michell Gyro deck that I had for 4 yrs. I have serious static problems with this plater which I have never had with the Michell. I clean a record with the VPI HW 16.5, then go to place the record on the platter - each time I get a static shock from the metal section of the platter, which has caused me to drop several LP's - major no no. Even when I pull off the LP - you can hear the static attraction to the acrylic platter. Now the Michell platter was acrylic( or so I thought) and this never happened. Is this something I have to live with or have others had this problem and solved it. I really like this deck as to the depth and detail, but this static stuff is driving me crazy.
brucedan

Showing 2 responses by brucedan

brucedan OP
16 posts
 
Zmrs13 are you talking about the bearing shaft base? - not a bad idea, I have the table grounded using the back side grounding knob, but you may be right as to grounding the shaft metal. as this then will contact the metal on the plater. i will try this latter tonight. If this works - Thanks
brucedan OP
16 posts
 
To all: Zmrs13 had the solution. The issue is with the center bearing shaft along with the metal banding on the platter side. Dry brushing was never an issue as the HW 16.5 is a wet vac. By just using a plastic cable tie on the shaft and running a 22gage grounding wire that was compressed to the shaft, and then ground to my main amp - took care of all static buildup. I think what was happening is as follows: the platter being acrylic and metal is set in a total acrylic deck. All my other decks have some metal in the deck - be it a floating suspension or solid type. Here the TNT is all plastic - no metal other than the bearing shaft. Any time a plastic material ie: acrylic is spun as is the platter, a static charge will build up, usually this is taken care of by grounding the tables frame. So by grounding the shaft - all is good.

Again thanks to Zmrs13.
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