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Restoring a Thorens TD124 Mk II SME3009 Shure V15 Type III

Yea verily it does... Just had a look and... and my capacitor sirrah, it oozes thus!

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Well its not bad going for 44 year old capacitor in my father's deck, but it is in dire need of replacing.[adpots stern english gentleman's voice] Ahem, I need a 240V -10° to 70°C 10 nanofarad capacaitor... and none of that colonial slanty-eyed muck either... it has to last another 44 years.

Maplins tomorrow I guess...
 
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Ok. 30p capacitor procured (amazingly Maplins had some!). All in. Still not spinning. I have commandeered that there Martin Clark and he has helped me restore it to correct spinningness by helping me strip the motor, re lube the bushings and correctly get the motor together again... and with some help of a bit of oil to get it all back and running smoothly.

All spinning fine and at what looks like correct speed. Have left on overnight to run in.

Next to get the SME off and the Mørch on this... and I can start re plinthing it.
 
Am undecided about the plinth.

I was going to make my own but I simply do not have the time to do a good job of it and found a couple of nice looking ones to keep me in spinning tunes when the Orbe finally leaves.

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or

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Which will define the armboard at the same time

I've got time to do some other dicking about to the machine's undersides but I really am undecided about the choice of colour.

Will choosing timeless black suggest a return to the ways of [cough] M***?
 
Aha, intermediate-stage thought that struck me as I oozed southward - why not simply rout a hole in another sheet of polycarbonate and let that fill the now-vacant space on the top of the rack? This would leave free space for Thorensfettlüng from below, too.
 
jmp has given some great advice. my only other thoughts - one of which was touched on by djsr (i think) - are that a 12" sme would be far better if you want to stay with sme, and you would need to get the thorens extension board. that would also open up the use of other arms with higher accuracy than the sme, such as the stax 12" arm. use of an aro sounds intriguing! i have a hadcock mounted on a fons cq-30, and regard that arm/tt combination highly, but only with m/m cartridges. the points made about m/c cartridges not liking heavy metal or digital startup/drive mechanisms are to be taken seriously - one of the bains of my life was running a yamaha d/d t/t with a stax arm and ortofon m/c cartridge, so live and learn!! good luck - fantastic thorens t/t!!! hugh
 
So, now parts have started trickling in from the four corners of the world. The Mushrooms (delightfully entitled Gummimuffen came over from Hong Kong a few days ago. The Plinth just arrived from Taiwan (via an eBay seller jakehung although I bought off eBay as I wanted a matching armboard blank as well and negotiated a deal) and like a kid I had to show it off to y'all as soon as it arrived.

First to the Mushrooms.

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On the left are the old 40-ish year old suspension grommets as I found them... The ones on the right are new ones bought on eBay. May these last as long. In fact I may just get an extra couple of sets to keep me going until I go deaf!

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And here is a sneak peak of the workmanship with added Gummimuffen to be sure it all fits! (It fits like a glove)

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Another sneak peak. The wood is just hypnotic to look at. I feel it is a modern take on a classic look -- its slightly wider so I can ask one of the acrylic chaps to make me a dust cover but its still entirely in keeping with the looks of the TD124. The standard of workmanship is extremely high, the wood is very heavy -- this is seriously thick slabbage! And the packaging to get it to me was splendid!

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I haven't gotten to the other parts of the renovation beyond the motor repair (a strip and a re lube with oil) and the replacement mushrooms. .. but this will give a feeling for how this baby will be when the rest of the underside is brought up to spec and cleaned. The top has already had a clean and a polish. The bearing has already had some new oil (I shall be evacuating the bearing shaft soon to wash out any finings that may have accumulated over the years -- but at present it is pretty clean).

Waiting on a Rosewood Armboard (blank so I can cut for the new tonearm that arrived last week), slate bed to sit it on also, plus a new drive belt and other grommety-things shall arrive next week. Arm already in waiting and the cart... ah as for the cart I have planned something a bit special...

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...take no prisoners...
 
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A vintage (19-year old) original Koetsu Urushi which will have its own transformative adventure over in Japan very soon (I hope).
 
That is clearly going to be special. Glad you have a plinth with curves!

I must admit I do prefer the look of the 'classic' petite ones but that does look great.
 
Patrick Dixon said:
Plinth looks really nice. Do I gather you're going to sit the whole thing on a slate slab?
Click to expand...

Sure. Unless there is a really bad reason to do it that way but loads of people seem to like sticking their Thorens decks on heavy mass loaded supports so... Baaaaaah!

(Might be having a rethink about the current stand and having a blocky heavy oak table support made with adjustable feet and a slate topper)

The slate so far is just an old bit I had lying about.
 
Sounds like a decent idea to me - although I'm not sure about that angle iron underneath :) Surely a class act like this should sit on a mahogany sideboard or something?
 
My thoughts exactly. Something chunky though. Reclaimed oak perhaps. DIY made or comissioned. Phat legs and wood shelves with slate on top. I'll get to that in a bit. First to get the deck singing.
 
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At this stage i am making sure the whole bearing shaft is nicely lubricated. First by sucking out the old oil with a syringe and a pipe then replacing with new oil and sucking it out after a few hours of spinning. At present its a 10W 40 synthetic -- every nerd has his favorites/hates... 5% slip additive will be added to the final lube -- but that won't happen just yet. The initial draw was the consistency of sludge and a dark brown. 5 flushes and this is much better -- normal in fact. I'll end with a number of swab-outs to remove any trace grime left in the housing.

A sobering thought was the deck spun without power for longer than any deck I've owned with sludge in the bearings, now the thing will just not stop spinning (hence the ingenious outer platter lift I suppose!).

Some people recommend removing the bearing thrust plate on the underside and flushing the entire tunnel with alcohol and repeatedly wiping it by drawing alcohol impregnated wipes through -- good as that method is that's too invasive for me -- I stand a good chance of damaging the gasket. I think this method is slower but gentler.
 
Just be careful about oil choice - IIRC the Thorens has plastic bushings, and if they are anything like the white LP12 plastic bushings some types of oil might just penetrate and swell them up to the point they be useless (someone trashed an LP12 bearing here recently). This is just guesswork on my behalf, but it is something I'd want to research had I a beautiful TD-124. I know nothing about oil.

Tony.
 
fox said:
A vintage (19-year old) original Koetsu Urushi which will have its own transformative adventure over in Japan very soon (I hope).
Click to expand...
Aha. A retip / service. Do you have definitive plans?
Congratulations on the simply stunning deck and the beautiful cartridge.
 
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