Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II


“For those who want the moon but can't afford it or those who can afford it but like to have fun and work with their hands, I'm willing to give out a recipe for a true high-end 'table which is easy to do, and fun to make as sky's the limit on design/creativity! The cost of materials, including 'table, is roughly $200 (depending, more or less), and add to that a Rega tonearm. The results are astonishing. I'll even tell/show you how to make chipboard look like marble and fool and impress all your friends. If there's interest I'll get on with this project, if not, I'll just continue making them in my basement. The next one I make will have a Corian top and have a zebra stripe pattern! Fun! Any takers?”

The Lead in “Da Thread” as posted by Johnnantais - 2-01-04

Let the saga continue. Sail on, oh ships of Lenco!
mario_b
Jim, not trying to speak for Chris at Teres but the replacement motor for the Garrard is much more compact than the Lenco or Garrard motor. There would be no reason for the Lenco replacement motor not to be as compact. It would let you cut out less plinth material and retain more mass. I have a pretty good hunch that an eighty pound plinth would no longer be needed. The Teres motor is very smooth. Also, no vibrating speed control lever to make room for. The lever could just be removed as all speed is controled from the black box. The speed is very accurate I might add.
BTW, I am listening to a Versus/Teres driven 301 right now. It is a very nice improvement over the stock 301 motor. Part of which no doubt comes from the removal of all of the stock linkage and idler. How much is yet to be determined.
I am curious how the Lenco nation feels about removing the stock motor and idler wheel, the heart of the beast, even if removing them makes a marked improvement in sound? Is it no longer a Lenco?
IMHO the Lenco motor is adequate, if not excellent. Simple design and easy to adjust if necessary.
It would be very difficult to spend $1700 for a motor one does not need. But if you do, I'd be happy to purchase your Lenco motor for $25!!!
Considering the Verus will be the motor of choice for many belt drive decks as well as idlers with impractical to repair engines, it will probably become part of the analog lingo ie Verused Spacedeck, Verused 301, Verused Rockport oops just kidding :) Perhaps abbreviated to VRD?

So a Lenco will become a VRD L75 etc etc However, this thread is called 'Building high end tables CHEAP etc' so the everlasting Lenco motor will be good enough for many folks. :) Horses for courses ...... until the cheap clones arrive from you know where.

Chris, if you need a demo VRD-Lenco setting up in the UK, please just ask, I'll let you know where to post the test motor! :)

Regards
Chris, How do you envision your replacement Lenco motor? Would it drive the underside of the platter directly with a vertically oriented "rim"-drive wheel, or would it drive the platter via the Lenco idler mechanism or some facsimile thereof? Anyway, I for one would be interested to learn more.

By the way, why was/is it necessary to develop a remote mechanism to flip the Verus motor against the inner rim of the Garrard 301 then away from contacting it when the motor is not in use? Would it not be sufficient simply to turn the motor on and off and let it lean on the inner rim at all times?

Thank you for having the guts to introduce a paradigm shift into the competitive belt-drive marketplace.
First I want to be clear that I am "contemplating" doing a Verus motor for the Lenco. This is not a commitment.

I can see a few ways to do a Lenco/Verus. I suspect that the best approach would be to create an assembly much like what we did for the Garrard. The Garrard assembly consists of a mounting bracket, a pivoting motor block and a motor with a 2" drive wheel installed on the motor shaft. The drive wheel rests against the inside rim of the platter. The motor block has a pivot that allows the motor block to tilt away from the platter. The weight of the motor block establishes the drive wheel pressure. Thats the general idea. A picture would probably help. For this to work on a Lenco the inside of the platter rim would need to be true and smooth.

Another option would be a replacement for only the motor itself. From the pictures I have seen it looks like the Verus motor would fit inside of the existing Lenco motor housing. The tapered shaft could probably be fitted to the Verus motor shaft. I expect that this would be sonicly inferior, but some may wish to retain the original idler.

We have not developed a mechanism for tilting the motor away from the platter for the VRD-Garrard but will probably do so. The motor needs to be tilted for platter installation but not for normal operation.

Chris