wooden tonearm. cld diy

no luck getting brazilwood. 

Brazilwood. Good luck getting it.

Drum sticks. LOL YUP I’ve seen a few.

Glued side by side, run the wires down the V between the two.
You can run a silicone tubes with 1 SC wire each, 3 per side.
We used 2 silk socks the ground wire usually teflon and the + / L and R were exposed but in TWO silks. We talking SOTA of today 45-50 years ago..

WE didn’t have silicone tubing back then, It would have bankrupted you. LOL I don’t know.. Silicone 50 years ago.. was REAL expensive.

We use to get it in two parts. Vinegar and Raw silicone.. You mix it right, you could pour it.. WRONG!, it would flake and make a mess.. It was how we use to quiet up the aluminum BTT platters.. Fairchild required it on their 16 and 20" aluminum billet platters.. Sure worked..

They had 18 and 20" special order wands... A lot of that STUFF went to Japan.. The money they would pay back then for US made gear.. They made great fractional HP motors too, actually the best. just don’t say that out loud..

Drum Sticks... YUP...

Regards

If this is for personal use why not run the wires on the outside of the tonearm (experiment with different wire and wire surrounds - cotten, et cetera)?

I you are really clever/simple then a few well chosen twists of the wire (below the arm's pivot point) would then become the anti-skating feature of your DIY arm.

DeKay

I've used Apatong, and a few different Oaks. The tunnel is easy I did straight arms, from 10-20" long, 12-16" was pretty popular in the 70s.
3/4 wide x 1/2 thick. A company in Elk Grove CA made arms for radio station Broadcast TT.  A Micro Trak 303 is still very popular for us guys that do Russco, Sparta, QRK, Collins, Fairchild, Roberts BTT.

If you look at the base it has a neat way to control skate and you make the arm and counterweights to your liking.

I use to cut the tunnel 1/4" x 1/4" (square) dead center of the arm.

Now you can buy the headshell insert for next to nothing. High quality 
Just drill the tip and use whatever headshell you like. Run the wire through the exposed tunnel and set it in place. I use to buy a SME kit for 15-25 bucks I think.. Silver wire with two spares, I'd run all six wires and fold back two.

 I use to use analog phone SC copper with teflon covers. The wire was ALWAYS free. It was and is everywhere, if you look. A single piece of 1" analog 18" long cable can wire 100 tone arms.. Yes they sounded wonderful.. 

I know I still have at least 100 feet of 3/4 stock cut from 30 year old seasoned apatong and oak. The trees they came from at least 200 years old. Cut and strap the wood with ZIP ties how, very nice and EASY.

Pull your stock as you need it.. Restrap..

As a kid I worked at the machine shop that repaired a lot of the BTT platters and stuff.. They also made the base and square wire tip for their wood wand tonearms in Elk Grove. Take two weeks to make 100 or so..

Mother of pearl, Ivory, gold or soft wire inlay.. just takes time and strong hands... Mine are wore out.. 15-20 min max for me. Cryin' shame..
I did about thirty that were carved on by a few locals crazys. One guy did  Totem Poles. RARE to find one.. His name was Bear, go figure..

I get a bug every now and then.. I'll find a 303 base and make one..

Regards

so it's could be just wood? how bout sleeving the cable with cotton?

what do you think about ceramic tube internal wall? those ceramic headshell sound awfully nice. 

I have on hand one of Joe Grado's gunstock walnut arms. So that is a good recommendation for arm use.

Anthonya, any dense wood will work like cocobolo, Ebony, Blood wood, Lignam vitae and so forth. Schroder infuses his with a resin so they are very hard. The trick is getting a hole down the middle. You will need a lath and a pen mandrel to do this. You do not necessarily need anything in the center. If you drill the right sized hole you can insert any tubular material. I would use thin walled aluminum tubing as it is stiff. At the back of the arm you could copy Schroder's reference arm. It uses kevlar thread and attracting magnets. Twisting the thread provides anti skating. Have a look at it. Next would be a gimbal set up with rings and needle bearings, tougher to do. Now you need a mini lath set up.