i lashed a motor block up yesterday and had a play to see if the deck would actually work. i drilled a small hole in the main deck to put the carbon fibre unipivot arm on and nailed a plate to a large oak block to put the motor at the right distance away from the idler in order to use the trio belt i found. not being arsed to put it in the main system i lashed up a system on the kitchen table to test it. tried the a60 fist which for some reason packed up. oh well it was only 3 quid i'll have a look at it later. subbing in an old pioneer receiver got it making noises.
first thing i realised was that i needed to run the motor backwards to get the platter spinning clockwise. running the idler off the belt meant it was running clockwise instead of anti clockwise as it would be if running directly off the motor spindle. i then added an old control knob to the motor to act as a pulley. i did this as as the revs rose on the motor it got noisier so adding a pulley meant i could reduce the revs. strangely it was quieter running backwards.
suitably tweaked, connections reversed and put in place, it was then too tall to run against the drive face so i had to run it against the platters top edge. no ideal but that can be sorted later. cuing up a record had pete gabriel sounding like pinky and perky until i got a handle on the speed control. its very very sensitive so a little difficult to set but it stayed very stable once set. the first thing to notice was that it sounds very solid. i couldnt detect any wow or flutter. i wasnt trying to test for sound quality just to see if it would run stable. staring at the strobe disc till my eyes hurt showed no speed fluctuations and i didnt hear any pitch changes so it does work as it should. im having a pulley and an idler made for it so that another problem solved.