Commonwealth Electronics restoration

[cafe latte]

I think the ball bearing will be available off the shelf. I split with an angle grinder a car gearbox bearing and the ball was the correct size, but I imagine a bike shop would have the correct size ball. It is a screw and lock nut like on the motor, but maybe yours does not have the adjuster as the adjustement is not really nessary IMO and maybe later models did not have it?
Regards
CL

Well, the ball itself is not the problem, i even have these in my drawer. It's just the bloody screw with the cup that takes the ball...

Is yours missing? If so just get a bolt with the same thread and cut a slot in it. As the ball when oiled up in my TT stays stuck to the spindle my feeling is the indent is not at all important and a normal bolt will actually provide less friction and will probably run even quiter. It is possilbe the indent in mine is years of wear so I would just try to get a bolt to fit. If you cant then I would drill out the base plate a little larger in a drill press to make sure it is straght, then tap it out for the next size bolt.
Regards
CL
Edit.. I will be off line till Sunday as I am going away and leaving soon so if you need me to check anything post here and I will check when I get back.
CL

[kaputt]

Hi CL,
I ordered a piece of bronce rod. I'll put it in my lathe, cut the 1/4"-20 UNC thread, polish the top and will find piece of mind.
Thanks for the input!

[cafe latte]

Bit of an update regarding turntable speed accuracy. when I first restored the turntable it was running slow. I fixed this by bending the spindle mount correct for the idler wheel. Someone at some point had fitted the platter while the turntable was switched to a speed instead of off. The idler wheel had caught the edge of the platter bending the idler bracket so the idler wheel was at an angle not square to the motor spindle resulting in slow running. I fixed this and all seemed fine. I noticed of late that the turntable was running quite a bit fast now, maybe 1.5% or even a bit more. I looked again at the angle of the motor spindle to the idler wheel. I noticed that they were still not square to each other, this is best seen switching to 45 speed and slowly bring the idler wheel to the motor spindle and let them touch. Look at the edges of the steps on the spindle and the flat top side of the idler wheel. I leveled the two by adding and removing different size rubber washers under the rubber motor hangers. When I was sure I had the two lined up perfectly I replaced the platter and ran a strobe disc. It looked perfect, more stable than I have ever seen it. Just to double check I placed a reference marker on the platter and counted 200 revolutions in 6 minutes and as I counted the 200th revolution the stopwatch was EXACTLY 6 minutes!! Now it is perfect All the same I dont notice any difference in pitch, but silent passages seem more silent than ever, maybe as the idler is not scrubbing. Still rumble free and sounding great .
Hope it is helpful.
Regards
Chris

[KentT]

Beautiful restoration of this classic. Australia's equivalent of the great broadcast idlers. Beautiful photography too. I am happy you installed the Jelco on this table. Beautiful plinth. This deck would not look proper with a Linear arm on it. It looks ready to put back on the air even. Superb restoration, congratulations on a job well done. This one is Bonza!

[cafe latte]

Beautiful restoration of this classic. Australia's equivalent of the great broadcast idlers. Beautiful photography too. I am happy you installed the Jelco on this table. Beautiful plinth. This deck would not look proper with a Linear arm on it. It looks ready to put back on the air even. Superb restoration, congratulations on a job well done. This one is Bonza!

Thanks Kent, much appreciated
Regards
Chris