New guy with an idea.

[Squiffything]

Thanks for the info Eoin.

So it's either fitting it up as it is or hard fixing the bearing and sub-platter and then hard fixing the tonearm. What do you think to either of the above options?

Obviously the way it is at the moment works otherwise the Systemdek would have been produced a different way however this way may/will affect the aesthetics of the whole thing. It's not all about the looks, I do want it to sound great, but will hard fixing each unit separately be a problem when it comes to the final sound?

[Dunbar]

Great project! Well done for giving it a go. I agree with Eoin regarding the arm. If you were using a non suspended subplatter it would be a more realistic approach. But in your case the arm should be able to “bounce” along with the platter.
Also, how do you intend to mount the motor. Is it going to be placed under the platter so that it can drive the sub? Or are you planning to move it further out in a separate housing. If I understood well you are going for the second option. I am not so sure if it is wise to have such a long distance if you are driving only a small diameter sub platter (or at least I haven't seen it anywhere else).

[Squiffything]

I hope I will be able to keep the same dimensions for the motor to the platter as the original but it will be down to the wood and what I can do with it.

I took on board Eoins comments and will try and keep the tonearm and platter on the same base. If it's not possible then I will drop the suspended base although I think keeping it will be the way to go.

This is something totally new to me I have no knowledge or experience of how or why turntables are put together the way they are. It may be a total mess when it's finished. I am not expecting to produce the rival to the £1k+ TT's that are out there but if I get a TT that plays and sounds good then I will be happy

Oh by the way the next project has shown itself to me I came across a Michell double TT Wow what an amazing thing. If only I had the three and a half grand of Euros he was asking for it.

[mickb69]

Thank goodness for that Mick I thought you were dissing my plans

ha ha, no mate, they look excellent, i like the top one

[Squiffything]

I just had a call from the wife, my wood has arrived and will be ready for me to inspect and evaluate

And then she tells me that she has invited my sister and brother in law down for dinner I swear she does this on purpose

Ah well I have spent the last few days down in the shed wiring up speakers and getting the Yammy amp up and running properly.

My Mum and Step dad are over from Turkey at the moment so knowing he's a Hifi buff I took him down to show him how I was getting on. He was impressed with the sound so far and offered me his system which he has stored away as it's too much for him to take over to Turkey and he'd rather it be used than gather dust in his brothers garage so not wanting to sound rude I accepted the offer of a quad pre-amp power amp and a set of Mission floorstanders to compliment the Kefs

Please see my other post and give me advice on my growing little set-up.

[natty_dredd]

haha - this is turning into an exercise in how to get some free stuff !

People love putting things into pigeon holes - show that you're enthusiastic about something and that you have need for some bits and pieces and suddenly people want to match their unused hifi with the enthusiast.

People do that with local dealers too - stuff they wouldn't give to half-interested family but happily donate to the enthusiastic dealer to sell on.

[Squiffything]

Natty you're so right and for me this is working out loads better than I had ever hoped when I started

Well the wood had arrived and it looks fantastic. I had to wait until this morning to unwrap it all and the seller had done a great job in packing it for delivery. Half an hour of carefully cutting tape, binbags and bubble wrap then removing paper from inside the holes and crevaces in the wood and I finally got to see what I'm going to be working with.

The dimensions of the main piece do not look as though I'm going to be able to fit the sprung base of the systemdek so it looks as though the sub- platter bearing may have to be hard fixed. I'm not too worried by this as it will give me more scope to use the wood as I first envisaged when I saw the two pieces.

The main piece does have a natural stance when laid down and looks fantastic. I think it will really come alive once it has been cut and shaped to give a flat topside. There is plenty of space and scope to have the tonearm mount within the same section as the bearing section so all's good there.

The second piece (the volcano) is large! Way to high as it stands to use with the other piece so I'm probably only going to be using the top section of this for the motor housing. This will however give me enough left over to make a base for a second turntable Oh it's going to be a busy summer in the shed for me this year. I'm already on the lookout for the next cheap/free turntable.

When I get in this evening I'll have a play with positioning and take a few more pics of the pieces.

[Squiffything]

Monday morning and I think divorce may be in my wife’s mind. She has not seen me much over the weekend due to hours spent down in me shed.

Firstly on Friday evening I had a good look at the wood and decided on the positioning for the Platter and tonearm. Baz my stepdad brought over the Quads. A 44 pre-amp and a pair of 303 power amps. Bi-amping is definitely on the cards. Unfortunately the power leads were missing the connection plug into the 44 from the 303's so it has been a case of waiting until I arrived at work this morning to have a hunt through the old computer cables that I hoard in boxes for just this kind of emergency.

The mission speakers are floorstander 735's.



Unfortunately, here, one of the cones on one woofer had a split around a inch long. These are of a plastic type material so applying an inch square of gaffer tape over the hole has produced a simple fix to the problem and having connected them up there is no detriment to the sound. The Kefs are now being used as the surround speakers replacing the Aiwa's. The sound is lovely coming from the Yammy amp both through the iPhone, the iPod and through the Sony CD player. I would note that the iPhone (4GS) gives a much clearer, crisper sound than the iPod (Classic) Same MP3's.

The Sony Sounds excellent although no SACD's tried out yet.

Having spent a good part of Saturday morning playing around with the setup I then had the afternoon to start on the wood for the turntable.

Having chosen the positions and measured up the heights and distances the drilling cutting sanding and general bodging began. An afternoon/evening later and the bearing and tonearm support were in place.







More cutting sanding and measuring had the Sub-platter and then the platter spinning freely in the bearing.



Sunday morning and I was attentative to my wife. I tidied up the kitchen following the Champions League final party the night before, I made her a cup of coffee, I asked her what SHE wanted to do that day. She told me to **** off and get down the shed and play with my record player.

After a little more tweeking and fine sanding I had the platter spinning perfectly. I then started on the motor housing.

The Volcano whilst big was not large enough to fit the motor and support inside so I had to make a decision. I decided that as it needed to be quite close to the platter I would have it protruding out of one side. More measuring then sawing, cutting, cutting some more, swearing, cutting, chiselling, hacking, smashing, swearing even more and finally one last bit of sawing had the bottom half of the hardest bit of wood I have ever had to cut fell away. It did not help that it was a totally un-uniform shape I didn't want to put it in a vice because I didn't want to ruin any of the features. The sides are not totally joined and again I was fearful of damaging these. Honestly I attacked this thing with two different hand saws, a jig saw a circular saw and then a hammer and chisels.

Eventually I had a piece left that I could use and the TT gods must have been looking down on me because putting it down on the worktop had it sitting perfectly flat with no rocking whatsoever. Result!!

I cut away a section in the side and fitted the motor housing in place. It was then offered up against the main section. The motor spindle(?)(the bit the belt goes around) sat in a perfect alignment with the sub-platter, another result.

The circuit board and wiring sit snuggly in the tube of the Volcano with the power lead and switch lead having enough length to pass out under a cut that I had made at the base. Clearly this was an intentional gap and not a botch due to the aforementioned cutting/sawing/swearing etc etc.



So there it was, a freely spinning platter, a motor in place, a belt fitted on to check alignment, a power lead sitting so invitingly close to an empty socket...

I had to do it. The switch wasn't in its place but no bare wires were out. I plugged it in and tentitively reached for the switch. Turned it on and the platter immediately started spinning. IT'S ALIVE!!!! I'd like to say now that as I did this the theme music to Apocolypse Now was playing on the CD player......

but I cant, it had been playing earlier on and at the time I thought what a great piece of music to have when I see if it runs but it was a passing thought The switching on for the first time was however one of those moments. A big grin moment, the sort of moment when you look at what you have done and are happy

[Squiffything]

I just had one more job to do and that was to sort out the tonearm fitting. The holder sat perfectly level but the arm itself sat too high. It all had to come out and the hole drilled deeper. More sanding and shaping and the arm slotted into place. A quick check with the platter on and the tip slides over gracefully all the way through to the centre spindle.





I even have a suitable place for the iPod docking point.



Having set it all up I had to try a record on it. No power no setup to the Amp just a check to make sure the stylus sat properly and the platter turned. I heading back into the house still grinning and grabbed the first bit of vinyl off the pile - the 12 inch version of Sweet Dreams by The Eurythmics, very appropriate. I put it on and postioned the arm, dropped the lever and the stylus sweetly dropped into the groove. I placed my ear to the cartridge and spun the platter. The familiar sound of the opening beat could be heard from the stylus. One very happy bunny and the grin widened. It was a quarter to 10 last night and my work for the weekend was done. I went into the house and my girls were all cuddled up on the sofas, the dog lifted an eye, looked at me and went back to sleep. The cat looked over with a 'where have you been all day' look then, in turn, went back to his snooze. My eldest looked up, turned to mum and said 'You can't be cross with him look at his smile Haven't seen him grin that much since you two got married he must be happy. The wife looked, asked if I'd had a good weekend and then gave me a hug. She knew I'd been having fun

Oh and to top it all off she asked me where in the living room was I going to set it up? I'd resigned myself to it staying down in the shed but having seen what I'd been doing she said it was too lovely to have it hidden away. She wanted to be able to show it off to people when they came to visit.

[Rob998]

Excellent stuff Squiffy!!! Is there nothing a man with power tools in his shed cannot accomplish? I really like that, it is very very cool indeed!

[COOLHAND46]

What a great post, can't wait for the next installment!

[Squiffything]

Herewith the next installment

It sings!!! it actually plays records and sings out the music in beautiful clear crisp yet warm tones. No fuzzyness, no hum, no distortion on the voices, just clear beautiful sound and I am so pleased.

I started the evening cutting out a through hole for the tonearm phono lead. once done and in position I took a step back and looked at it.

'Hmmm spinning platter - check'
'motor turning and powering up - check'
'belt fitted and tight - check'
'tone arm in place and stylus reaching the record - check'
'phono lead connected to the tonearm - check'

Everything seemed to be ready for its maiden run. I plugged in the phono lead to the yammy, connected up the earth lead and selected phono. At this point I was expecting a hum or a buzz, damn it half of me was scared whitless that it was gonna blow up. I mean what do I know about electrics? Nothing, no noise, no sparks, no smoke, nothing.
Next step switch on the turntable, a start to the spin and it soon got up to speed. Again no buzz, no humming, no motor noise nothing. This little test run was proving quite positive.
Ok now for the acid test. I switched off the turntable and placed Sweet Dreams on the platter, turned on the motor and away it spun. I set the tonearm in place for the stylus to drop onto the vinyl and lowered the guide arm. The head slowly dropped and the stylus made contact with the groove. Sweet Dreams sung out as if my old decrepid grandad was giving us his rendition. Doh it's a 12" not an album ya big doofer. I think I said earlier that it has been a while since I last played records

I stopped it all, changed the belt and tried again. It was faster but not right. This time it was my grandad but after someone had given him a swift kick in the goonies still slow but a slightly higher pitch. It seemed as though the belt might need replacing straight away. I knew it would probably need doing but the one on it seemed to be in good order. Hang on a mo it seemed to be playing slow so let's see if an album would work better.

I shot back into the house and grabbed the firsl LP from the pile, a three disk collection of love songs. Good grief, still if it was playing slow what better than to have slow songs

I stuck it on and dropped the arm again.......

Nothing, then a crackle, then some more, then all of a sudden the oh so familier tone of Spandex Ballet's hit - True. It was playing as it should do and the sound was wonderful. What was to be a 5 minute test had me listen to the whole side and loved every track.

I am so pleased with how it sounds and looks. I have now just got to decide on a finish for it, sort out the electrics, sort out the base board (that's if the wife gives me back my coffee table) and source some spikes and shoes.

I really am a happy bunny tonight

[Squiffything]

Houston, we have a problem...

The wife was over at her best mates tonight for a girlie chat night so after twiddling my thumbs for a bit I decided to go down to me shed pfft what else

The switch has been fitted in a tidy out of the way place and also whilst she was gone I pinched back the coffee table I set up the volcano and the main body on the table to see how it looked on what was going to be the base





I carefully measured out the gap between the spindle and the sub-platter exactly 10mm, Coz I remembered to measure this gap before I took the Systemdek apart didn't I (Erm... thanks Rob, there is so much info on this forum if you know the man in the know.



I had chosen a few LP's and a 12" to take down with me so that I could try out a varied selection and put it through its paces.

I started up the motor and there was a hum. I moved the volcano about and it quietened down a bit so I stuck on an LP and once again the sound was fantastic yet underneath and more noticable when the tracks ended the hum could be heard I couldn't understand it, first time it played and it was silent and I mean deadly silent only the crack of a hair being run over and nothing else.

I jiggled about the volcano checked the belt alignment checked the motor and all seemed ok. I played through a couple of more album sides yet when the tracks ended there was the hum. Now it's not loud and when a track played you couldn't really hear it but it was bugging me I knew it wasn't there before. The only changes were the switch being put in place and the table.

I moved the whole lot back on the desk and tried again. Silence once more. I tried to make the hum again but here it seemed perfect. So the table seems to be the culprit. I'll have to break the news to the wife and then consider an alternative base. I think a nice black marble/granite shaped slab should do the trick. There's a stone mason a few fields over so I will have to make a call to see what he can do for me. Either that or a trip up to the graveyard to see if there are any spare blocks laying around. face the writing down nobody would ever know

So back on the bench I stuck on Vivaldi's greatest hits album. Beautiful. The strings were superb clear crisp and definate as to where they were coming from. The bass of the bass and lower notes were deep and rumbly. OK I'm not an audiophile and don't have the good ears or the terminology but I like what I like and I liked it alot.

Next on was Chris Rea's Road to Hell 12" fantastic guitar and steel guitar sounds sent tingles through me. And tonight the 45 speed was working.

Finally Paul McCartney tripping the live fantastic. Beatles and Macca stuff. Set the Yammy to rock concert mode and sang along to fool on a hill etc.

It's so much fun getting back into the vinyl, I'm loving it and this beast is doing all I had hoped.

[Rob998]

Try some blobs of blu-tack under the contact points of the driftwoody stuff and the coffee table/base, rather than blowing your wad on granite....Put some under the volcano too.

If that works you can upgrade to something like sorbothane pads when the mood takes you.