Well tempered question?

I recently resurrected my Well Tempered Classic that had been in storage for 6 years. I had questions about if I had the right amount of damping material and began an extensive search. I did find some references to the viscosity on the web but everyone seemed to be guessing. Contacting the manufacturer got no response. There are a few old yahoo well tempered user groups and maybe they can help you. Ultimately, my local dealer checked out my table and set it up for me and I was good to go so I stopped looking. If you find the answer please share. btw, I don't have the manual. Is there anyway you could provide me a copy? I'd really appreciate it. Also, you might want to contact my dealer, Elliot Midwood of Acoustic Image www.acousticimage.com in Studio City. He's a great guy with decades of experience and knowledge about well tempered and everything analogue.

Hello Grand,
Thanks for the response, I'll be happy to send you copies of anything I have. All I would need would be an address. I believe I have the Well Tempered Record Player, but the owner bought the upgrade platter. I've ordered some silicone damping material with different viscosities from Turntable Basics and have put a nice gloss to the black piano finish plinth. Thanks for the Acoustic Image reference, I'll send an email.

Tapepath. I'd appreciate a copy of the manual. Here's my email. larry@campkeystone.com Email me and I'll send you my address. Thanks again.

As a followup I contacted the Dynavector company, who now is the dealer for Well Tempered products. The lubricant used in the platter bearing can be 5W20 or 5W30 weight synthetic motor oil. The damping material used in the tonearm cup is 100,000 cSt silicone. this can be ordered from Turntable Basics online.
I hope this is helpful information.

I have had several experiences setting up the WT Reference tonearm for a friend of mine who has owned the WTR tt and tonearm for nearly 20 years. IMO, the stock damping fluid in the tonearm well is way too viscous. If I had my druthers I would use something less dense and less of it. He may or may not have the stock fluid in his well (100,000 cs?), but it is so viscous that if you raise the tonearm, it will hang in mid-air before VERY slowly settling back down. I do not think this is optimal for tracing an LP that may have small warps or vertical undulations in its grooves.

Thanks for your information. I've been reading quite a bit about the effects of fluid viscosity on damping mechanical motion. To give readers a point of reference you can think of SAE60 motor oil having a viscosity of approximately 1,000 cSt at room temperature. Corn syrup is around 2,000 and good old Hershey's chocolate syrup is about 15,000 before it hits your ice cream and changes. Next time you put mustard on your hotdog remember it has a viscosity around 60,000 cSt. Tomato paste oozes out at around 150,000.
The recommendation of 100,000 cSt comes directly from Bill Firebaugh, the table's designer. Maybe your friend's table, like the one I have, has not had the silicone changed in quite a while? Mine is very thick, more like peanut butter.

And the viscosity of peanut butter is....?
I confess I have developed an antipathy toward that WTR tonearm. It does not hold VTF or azimuth, and it is over-damped (admittedly possibly due to something my friend did to it; he is now suffering from early stage of Alzheimer's and cannot remember what fluid he put into it).

I guess I haven't reached that level of frustration yet. My other turntables are a Maplenoll and an AR, two widely divergent designs that seem to be at opposite ends of the "pain-in-the-neck" scale. The WT seems somewhere in the middle and I like the originality of the designer.
I believe Skippy Creamy is 220,000 cSt at room temperature.
Cheers!

Hi Lewm
The arm's damping can be changed by lowering or raising the paddle in the cup. Once correct damping is set then it's forget and play. In the newer Amadeus it's as simple as lowering or raising the cup for damping.. Can't remember if my Ref worked that way or not.

I gave up. My dear friend is not using the WTR any longer. He and I watch movies instead.

LOL.

Tell your friend to run, don't walk, to get a WT Amadeus.

This thing is the sh^t.......

Shakey

Holy Crap! This ain't NASCAR boys. Use Well Tempered fluids ONLY. The wrong fluid could dissolve the plastic paddle or bearing points. Once installed you never mess with it unless you have to ship the table or it can't be moved carefully.

There are two different labeled fluids used in a Well Tempered table. The thinner one is used in the platter cup while the thicker is used in the tonearm cup.

The platter bearing cup should be approximately be 5/8 full. The distance from the inner edge of the cup to the fluid should be approximately 7/8". Slide the spindle into the cup making sure the bottom of the spindle is resting on the bottom bearing point. The fluid level must cover the top set of bearing points when the spindle is in the cup.

Before you install the fluid in the tonearm cup the filament adjustments need to be checked. For the flat paddle with two large holes the paddle should not touch the cup when the arm is resting on the (not spinning) plater with an LP on it or approximately 1/8-1/4 inch from the bottom of the cup.

The arm should be at approximately a 2 degree incline (fine tune later).

The shaft attaching the paddle to the tonearm should be vertical.

Once this has been checked and/adjusted install the tonearm damping fluid slowly letting it settle. The flat paddle should be covered by 1-2mm of fluid after it has settled.

Unlike chattery mechanical tonearms the Well Tempered arm must be handled slowly when queuing up a record.

Yes Vicdamone is right... the Well Tempered™ fluid uses very special Semantic Molecule™ technology that uses special atoms from a virgin source that is completely different from other 'Silicone' fluids ... in fact the laws of chemistry and physics are completely different (as you well know) for high end audio as compared to anything else in the known universe ... :P

grandpoohbah sez:

  "Also, you might want to contact my dealer, Elliot Midwood of Acoustic Image www.acousticimage.com in Studio City. He's a great guy with decades of experience and knowledge about well tempered and everything analogue."  

Totally agree. If you live in the L.A. area, Eliot is the one to set up your Well Tempered turn table. Set up correctly as Eliot does it, the WTT becomes one of the best tables out there. Amazing really.

Super tweak for the WTT:  A new belt from the originlive people in England. www.originlive.com

https://www.originlive.com/turntable-belts-replacement-new.html

Frank

To resurrect a dead thread and help someone in the future:

Mike Pranka, the guy that does WT parts in the US, gave me some info.

For damping, the fluid is particular but not propriety-100,000cst silicon. You can buy it on amazon, usually packaged for RC cars.  One of those size bottles is enough.

For the spindle, he said Mr. Firebaugh, the designer, has updated the fluid to be synthetic motor oil, 5w20 or 5w30, whichever is cheaper.  he said viscosity is not that important.