A new way of adjusting anti skate!

In the above, I confusingly wrote, "So pre-supposing an effect of velocity on the skating force is invalid, if the angle in the equation for skating force is equal to the headshell offset angle." That’s wrong on the surface. I meant to emphasize that velocity is not a factor, regardless of angle. And as a separate matter, the equation quoted by Mijo is also invalid if it is dependent only upon headshell offset and not TAE.

@normb ,  listening for distortion and watching the cantilever displace as it hits the record are sort of arbitrary. To get a good cartridge to distort requires very high groove velocities that over estimate the AS force required. The cantilever displacement was useful in the days of high compliance cartridges but not with the ones we use today. They are too stiff. Frank Schroders advice to set it so the arm slowly drifts inwards when placed between grooves in the run out section is probably the best low tech way of setting it. The equation I mention above is very specific except there is no one value for the kinetic coefficient of friction. There is a range. Using the Wally Skater and my device are really very simple and you know exactly what you are doing with a very specific target which is reassuring. Then you just forgetaboutit.  I have also used my modified gauge to verify that the Schroder method does indeed come close and using the blank record method consistently over estimates the AS force. I did not study cantilever displacement because by     the time the cantilever starts deflecting with my cartridge the AS is way off.  

TL;DR after @millercarbon’s and @lewm’s first posts (both of them being excellent, and I agree with them).

Trigonometry aside, and one thing that is lost on most individuals is "what are you adjusting for?"

The obvious answer is distortion, but all too frequently (and very much like tracking force), being able to track the most challenging A-S track on your test record is not necessarily ideal.

Excess tracking force and anti-skate (even if within your cartridge manufacturer’s specs, as far as tracking force is concerned), will likely compromise the dynamic presentation.

That’s a big "no-no" in my book, and the more I do this stuff, the more my final tuning steps address dynamics.

Now, in no way does this mean that I like distortion (quite the contrary), but given the choice of very good distortion performance with outstanding dynamics, vs. outstanding distortion performance and mediocre dynamics, I’ll always choose the former.

You might say that in phrasing the above choice the way I did is a straw-man argument, but the fact is that dynamics fall off a cliff very quickly with either too much tracking force or too heavy a hand with anti-skate.

I make a big deal about this in the free setup report you can pull down from my website.

... Thom @ Galibier Design

The best way I've seen, as well as explained was by the the Soundsmith guy, forget his name. He just places the stylus in the dead wax or run out groove and observes the behavior or movement of the tonearm/stylus. Too quick, bad...nice and slow and smooth, just right...thats how I've been doing it.

Mijo, for the Nth time, stylus velocity is not a factor in determining the magnitude of the skating force.  Thus your statement, "listening for distortion and watching the cantilever displace as it hits the record are sort of arbitrary. To get a good cartridge to distort requires very high groove velocities that over estimate the AS force required.", contains an invalid suggestion that stylus velocity affects the skating force. Also, further up the thread you intimated that the coefficient of friction will vary across the surface of an LP.  No it won't. For any formulation of "vinyl" used to manufacture a typical LP and the diamond stylus, the coefficent of friction is a constant.  Otherwise, it would not be called "the coefficient of friction".

I apologize for the pedantry, but at least we can get the basic science right. Then we can disagree on everything else. Which is cool.