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Sony TTS-8000 Lignum Vitae Bearings.

karma67

karma67

pfm Member
Sony TTS-8000 Bearing Upgrade.

Sony originally used oilites/sintered bronze bearings in most of their turntables,the TTS-8000 is no exception.
2 oilites are used along with a nylon? spacer.

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The merits of using Lignum Vitae for bearings are well documented, see here, https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=lignum+vitae+bearings
I have heard Torlon bearings in the past and they greatly reduced any noise coming from the spindle/bearing surfaces,my train of thought was LV bearings could also be an
improvemnet.

So a few bids on ebay and i won a couple of old lawn bowling balls,i cut them up into 25mm square pieces and selected the best grain orientation to experiment with.

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I turned and fitted 4 pairs before working out which working method produced the best tolerance, the spindle measures 10.98mm so an 11mm H7 reamer was used
to finish the bearings.

Bearing housing with bearing fitted and being trued up after initial drilling.

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Top bearing fitted.

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Whilst i was at it i also made a LV thrust pad to go with the bearings,the Sony one was Nylon.

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The new LV one.

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So thats it,job done,like the torlon bearings the LV ones have reduced the overall noise floor over the standard bronze bearings.The question left is which sounds better
Lignum Vitae or Torlon? My plan is to use the LV for a few months to bed in and then turn some torlon ones for comparison.
 
Thanks ian,i didnt bother because i believe bearing grade torlon 4301 is better than peek.the torlon bearings were used prior to me trying LV
 
Fascinating, I’d not heard this was even a thing! Beautifully done too. Lathes look like fun.
 
Surely the best bearing would be an oil film - no friction, just viscous drag, and perfectly smooth, as in not out of round or rough?

That would be down to oil slection.
 
Lignum vitae is self oiling if I remember rightly.... but I wonder if it can hold up to the tolerances you'd want for a turntable bearing. Still, its an interesting experiment for sure.
 
Nice work! I recommend anyone mildly interested in getting a lathe to give it a go. Never looked back since getting mine and it is by far the most useful, fun and thought provoking thing out my workshop. Can make all sorts of cool bits n pieces and even better if you can rig it up to do light milling tasks too.
 
Lv works, I made thrust pads for 401 a while back, but then swapped to SPH bearings. Hadn’t thought about the bushes, my skills probably not accurate enough.

I’d be interested in phosphor bronze thrust plate, maybe an oversized lump if we’re thinking aloud ??
 
Buy a decent pillar drill and an XY macine vice - easily good enough for any job that needs milling in the vast majority of home workshops.

I have an old Fobco pillar drill but has a B6 taper chuck. Tried milling once and chuck came out due to the sideways loading so kinda dangerous I thought. Wanted to change the quill shaft to an MT2 but they are nearly as much as the drill itself. Happy with lathe milling for now :)
 
Looking good Jamie. The trouble with any wood is you can only get it so smooth. Not an issue on large bearings in ships and subs, but as the shaft size gets smaller the fixed size due to grain imperfections become an increasingly larger % of the inner radius.

That said I'd love to try it as I imagine the softness, relatively speaking, more than makes up for it.
 
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