Part of the charm, to me, of this machine, is just what you said: it's just a posh Autoslim, which is how I'm treating it. Was the platter once perfect? Maybe. Maybe someone lovingly machined the aluminium platter, riveted it to the steel sub-platter, and gave it a kiss before it left the assembly line. Or maybe it fell off the roof of the buyer's car on the drive home from a sale, warping it for life. Maybe this was someone's pride and joy, right up until their grandson tripped on the mains cord and knocked it into the floor. Or maybe some worker just banged the platters together from 9-5 and threw them in a box marked "Platters", and I got one of the warped ones. At any rate, this machine is now my responsibility, which is why I'm bothering you and everyone as I try and fix it up as best I can.DSJR wrote:Here's where lack of metallurgy competence comes in. I don't know how the aluminium top platter of the 65B and 25 III was formed, whether milled from solid, simply cast and then machined (probably I suspect) or stamped out (not sure if aluminium can be prepared this way). Certainly, some castings needed to be 'rested' after major machining as they warped and in fact my earlier solid cast Lab 80mk2 platter shows signs of machining a little too soon as some warping before final machining is in evidence as well as further creeping after - had I owned this deck when newish I'd have complained and in fact the mat has varying thickness over its circumference almost deliberately to work some of this off so the stylus sees as flat a record as possible ;) Your 65B might have been a little bit better, but I really don't know. Garrard did take care with the machining of the cast inner bearing hub everything's riveted? to (screwed to on the superior models) but despite the 'SL' suffix and better tonearm, it's still basically a posh Autoslim changer, so some allowances have to be made.
The fact that I found an SL-65B, let alone an SL-anything in this town is amazing. The only SP-25's I've seen are in overpriced disco decks, and nearly every console pull is a BSR C### or derivative thereof.DSJR wrote:Again, things got better as the next few years went on and tolerances did seem to get tighter - I don't know how long the 65B was around - it didn't really sell in the UK as the SP25 III did. The belt driven models with cast platters were very good if my 86SB is anything to go by (if only I could get rid of the motor 'drone' through the speakers caused I believe by partly collapsed motor grommets...)
Once the CEC-built invasion began, it seems like the fun went away. Where's the challenge in rebuilding a Japanese turntable? Put a new belt on it and it works like new. Whee! :wink: