New guy with an idea.

[Squiffything]

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.

I had thought about that and have some spongy pads in the desk drawer to give it a try but after I set it up again on the desk and it played silent again I just wanted to play more vinyl

[Squiffything]

Well the hot weather has taken its toll on the beast sitting in the shed has dried the wood out and splits have appeared all over. It has changed the shape and position of the components so as an attempt to stop this from getting worse the beast has been brought into the house. I have also given it a good soaking of linseed oil.

Despite the cracking it still plays lovely and having cleaned out the bearing and re-oiled it spins so smoothly. It still has to have some work done to it but what do you lot think?





The sweet spot


Please, please please ignore the vinyl in the next couple of pics It's all hers honest!!





But she and our eldest did enjoy themselves I managed to get a side of an album playing at around half past eleven last night

[Rob998]

I really like it Squiffy! The domestic setting gives a better sense of the scale of it & it looks great! Most of all it looks like it's going to get plenty of use, and that's what it's for after all!

[Squiffything]

Cheers Rob its far from right but I'll get there oh and the wife loves it apart from the big speakers It's a guy thing I guess

[Squiffything]

Having gotten the Spare Saturn home I've spent the holiday weekend cleaning and sorting Dads Saturn to get it up and running for him. It looks sweet and plays lovely.



When we purchased it the guy had a selection of LP's he wanted rid of so Dad and I picked up a selection included one that I thought was just a little fitting for the Saturn.



Dad is so happy with the finish and sound and it's now back round his taking pride of place.

[Squiffything]

Having finished the Saturn for the 65 year old hippy I am left with the second Saturn in a sorry looking state. So with little to do over the weekend and the wife out with the girls I decided to see if anything could be done with it.

If you haven't seen it elsewhere it came looking like this



The cover, headshell, power lead and cartridge had been used for Dads TT so all that was left was the body, motor, platter, arm (without headshell) and arm lead (without connection plugs).

The leads were not a problem so after an hour or so of searching my collection of old bits and bobs (I hate to throw anything away that might be useful for Ron)and a bit of soldering and taping I'd made up a very Heath Robinson power lead and connection and fitted plugs to the arm lead. Having connected up the power it turned on and the light lit up. turning the little silver power switch had the platter spinning. Stage one completed I knew it was worth continuing.

Stage two was the clean. Another hour or two of scrubbing, dusting, brushing, polishing and spitting with every tub and bottle of the wife's finest cleaning products and it was all shiney and sparkly.

Stage three was the headshell. As those of you who've been following my projects will be aware, the headshell of the Transcriptor Saturn is akin to hens teeth and rocking horse poo in its unobtainability (is that a new word I've just invented?) So falling back on my degree in "have a go yourself" I decided to make one. You will see from the pic above that when we picked up the second TT it came with two headshells and cartridges. As expected these didn't fit the Saturn arm. They were both Stanton headshells each with a Stanton 500II cartridge. The stylus in each looked in good condition with little use.

The problem with the Saturn arm is that it needs around 6-7mm of pin coming off the headshell to connect it whereas most only have around 3-4mm. So using a couple of bits of scrap wood, a straigtened out paperclip and a round sticky foam pad I made a replacement headshell Please bear in mind this is prototype one. It isn't square at the front and the final unit will be finished properly. The lump on top is ballast it and is a 3g weight normally used for car wheel alignment (see I told you I never throw anything away) I tried a 5g but it was too much. I will be making a final model with straight cuts. I will sink the weight into the wood and give it a veneer of burr walnut. I've got a box of off cuts that this sort of thing cries out for.

Anyhoo after connecting the Stanton cart and fitting the headshell I gave it a test run. Tadah it plays and plays quite well.









The sun came out so me and the dog spent the afternoon lazing in the sun listening to vinyl until the wife came home. Happy days

[whtwter]

Ha my Yorkie looks like she could be a twin.

[Squiffything]

Ha my Yorkie looks like she could be a twin.

All the best DIYers have Yorkies. Hopefully yours doesn't look as dopey as ours

[joelito1]

Looks like it turned out pretty well. Congratulations!

Isn't working with irregular wood fun!

Joel Scilley

[Squiffything]

Thanks Joel

That was almost a year ago! The beast was retired and sits in the shed awaiting resurection. The wood started to move and I decided to let it rest for a year or more to settle down before coming back to it. Yup playing with irregular wood is very satisfying but does have its own problems that need to be overcome. Sounds like you may well have a few projects to share.

[nadelkiller]

mabye for your transcriptor you find missing parts and helpfull hints here:
Räke Hifi/Vertrieb GmbH
Irlenfelder Weg 43
D-51467 Bergisch Gladbach
+49 (0) 2202/31046Räke Hifi/Vertrieb GmbH
Irlenfelder Weg 43
D-51467 Bergisch Gladbach
+49 (0) 2202/31046
+49 (0) 2202/36844
http://www.transrotor.de
some years ago i got the same tt without headshell and belt and got it from this company
greetz nadelkiller
+49 (0) 2202/36844
http://www.transrotor.de
i got the sa