another td150 gets a new lease of life

[cressy]

im in the final stages of restoring another td150 and have hit a small problem. ive stripped and rebuilt the sonus formula 4 unipivot and rewired it.
i made a jig to realign the armtube, headshell and the ring that the armtube and counterweight stub fix into. i made a rega armboard to use the origin live ol1 with it and am almost done with the armboard for the mayware. just need to drill it out to make an sme style slot so the arm can move forward and backward as the headshell has fixed holes in it rather than slots. makes it a pig to set up for anything other than a sonus blue gold

i dropped the mayware into the rega armboard to see wether the arm cable would cause problems as its pretty stiff, and predictably it does. it proves almost impossible to dress the cable so that the deck can bounce freely.

it wasnt a problem with the jbe it was on before as that doesnt bounce, so i wonder if anyone has any ideas on either a fix for its current arm cable to make it more flexible, or any suggestions on where to get hold of a replacement cable that is flexible. its a standard din cable very similar to a linn one.

cheers ant

[Mike H]

Similar sort of problem I had, wanted to use the thick (albeit fairly floppy) instrument cables; so, when I rewired the Rega I took the Litz wire out of the base and onto a small bit of vero board screwed to the side of the plinth (Litz has to be long enough obviously), the screened leads then take it from there. Dunno if that helps you

[Mike H]

Here ya go, bottom 3 pictures here:

http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/phpBB2/view ... 1856#71856

[cressy]

i managed to get around the issues with the arm cable with a bit of lateral thinking, i ended up cutting a slot shaped like a keyhole in the plinth for the cable. holds it in place but allows abit of vertical movement where it goes through.

i then found i was getting nothing at the phono stage when plugged in. checked the continuity of all the cables from the cartridge tags to the plugs and thats fine, so theres either a short at the din plug inside the arm pillar of ive got a duff cart. all i get is a little pop like static if the canteliever is touched...........

wonder if ive got another cart somewhere to try

[cressy]

yep we had a duff cartridge swapped it for the ortofon sl15 that was distorting last time i tried it, and it appears to work ok now

strange........ but i knew with it id be getting at least some sort of output wether it was distorted or not. so success!

i'll post a pic or 2 when i can find my phone

[Mike H]

OK then!

[cressy]

couple of pictures




the plinth is solid beech strips, what you see in terms of wood is backed by an inner chassis of solid beech strips with a section taken out below the armboard so it will bounce. the armboard is a laminate of 5mm acrylic backed with 6mm mdf and the inside edge routed to clear the step on the subchassis. platter was polished and the armboard has an sme style cutout for the arm.

only other things id like to do is to replace the standard on/off switch with a backlit rocker switch and chance to linn springs. but that will have to be done after christmas

[Mike H]

Is it like the TD160, turn one way for 45 rpm & 'tother for 33.3 rpm?

[cressy]

it was until i took the linkage out, it was seized up and there was a slight twist in the main rod that proved an arse to put back into shape, so i removed it completely. speed change is now lp12 style i.e manually moving the belt

[Mike H]

Oh right OK. So where you gonna put the back-lit rocker?

[cressy]

im going to remove the original switch and its mechanism. theres a toggle switch inside the plinth thats activated by pulling the speed control upwards, but as the rest of the associated bits arent there i can cut off the 'basket' the the switch and mechanism sits in and punch a bigger hole in the top plate for a nice looking rocker switch. should be simple.........

[Andrew]

Shoddy, Ant, very shoddy, nice mitres!