new 12" tonearm project

[Oracle_309]

What O/S and O/H have you designed for? Just grabbing numbers without the corect O/H and O/S is meaningless and setting yourself up for failure.

[Oracle_309]

OOPs, sorry.

I didn't see the reference to the 18° O/S angle in the first post. If you are using an existing geomery then no problems. Regarding adding a spacer, not the end or the world, but you could trim a few mm from the bottom of the headshell to allow clearance of the stylus below the bottom of it. There is something very appealing to using these old headshells. I think they look great. If you stain the tonearm wood dark, the cream colour of the headshell will really stand out and look quite "right".

[moreau]

yes plan to do just that with the dark stain. Have now started on the brass pivot, turned the counterweight end to 10mm for now and bored a hole to take the turned down end of the wand. Next will be to finish the weight end to 8mm and assemble the wand with headshell and counterweight end to pinpoint the pivot position. photo's to follow. I plan to make the counterweight slider from oak in the hope that the brass weights and brass counterweight end will be a slide fit so I won't need to use grub screws.

[moreau]

[moreau]

have mounted a benz micro gold to the Garrard headshell and next will mount the headshell to the wand and lay on drawing with stylus to pivot marked on and mark position of pivot to drill into brass end.

[moreau]

Today I found a big slice of brass cut from round bar about 150mm diameter, I cut a piece off with a hacksaw and filed it smooth, this is to mount the counterweights, made some weights too on the lathe but they are too light. So taped some other bits of brass to them so I know what weight I need.

[moreau]

the arm put together to check for balance and counterweights required

[moreau]

I borrowed some measuring scales for small items and weighed the counterweights I had made that were too light. Have now made some more and can now adjust the vtf. I have also utilized some parts from an old arm so I have a ready made pivot, vtf adjustment and arm lift. Modded the arm rest to suit my oak wand. I have been trying different shades of stain on a spare piece of oak, think I will go with ebony.

[moreau]

a bit of an update but no more pics unfortunately as the v jewel I bought for the pivot is too small to get a decent photo of. It measures 2.5mm diameter by about 2mm thick with a v profile 2mm diameter to a point. I have held it in with silicon for the moment to see how it goes before epoxying it in permanently. I have tried several shades of stain on the oak wand but none have seemed right. It appears oak is difficult to stain. I would like to use rosewood but think I will have the same problem with the stain taking to the oak. My other option is to paint the headshell a similar red to the platter mat on my colarro, I think that may work with the oak.

[moreau]

have now epoxyed the brass pivot section to the wand, have given up with finding a stain that will take to the oak. Made a new counterweight that looks like a slice of dairy lea or laughing cow cheese, need to file , sand and polish it. Set it up with 1.5grammes of vtf. Just need to terminate the tonearm cable into either rca sockets in a small box close to the arm or rca plugs on the longer cable as is at the moment. Anyone have any thoughts on the difference between a heavy weight on a short overhang and a lighter weight on a longer overhang.

[moreau]

another view of the assembled but not finished aesthetically tonearm

[moreau]

been a while........ here is a picture of the completed arm on my recently refurbed Colarro 2010. I took it to a friends place and put it up against his 301 with air bearing arm and Ortofon something or other cart @ £3400. He said afterwards that he had a talk to himself about diminshing returns and the fact that my diy arm with Benz micro gold was so close to his set up and that it was probably only the cart that made a minute difference

[moreau]

here is another pic of the completed tt with oak two tier plinth not the work bench as in the previous pic