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dŵr & Friends (how not to build a turntable).

This is a piece of art. One of the things I love about such a beautifully executed concept is that the massive amounts of work, dedication, research and love invested in it are not immediately evident on viewing. Almost, what isn't there is more important than what is.

Someone, on perceiving the apparent simplicity of Rothko painting, might say, 'I could do that!'... (Yeah, right!) I look at this turntable and think, I wish I could do that...
 
I used to think of Rothko as an 'I could do that!' until I saw a real one, in the flesh at MoMA, NY. Firstly the sheer size and scale of the things - and then you notice the apparent 'depth' of the picture - you can sort of see 'into' it. And the technique - the 'drips' are not of the type that you would make if you tried it yourself.

Anyway - a little OT.

But the turntable is a marvel of engineering! And I too wish I had the skill and workshop to make such a thing. Pictures of the workshop? - or is all the stuff contracted out to local engineers?
 
Pictures of the workshop?

@igor_xxxx will chuckle when he sees this. :)

My biggest peeve is not keeping photos of the old shed (hesitate to call that a workshop). It was dusty, damp and had excruciatingly low ceilings. Would have been fun to reminisce. But most of the machinery used on dŵr is still being used primarily, although in a nicer, proper workshop space.

That said, the majority of parts turned on that same lathe (a proper Russian beast of a lathe, at that). This includes all aluminium parts, all bronze parts, all mild steel and POM parts, including custom screws and fasteners. Some aluminium work was farmed out to a waterjet shop, but only the rough work, as finishing work was still done on that same lathe. Wood work (frames for both the turntable and the PSU) was farmed out to one of the largest furniture makers locally, as they had the properly precise wood carving CNC.

Finishing-wise... sandblasting in the workshop (bought and refurbished a proper sandblaster which has more than paid for itself with shop work), anodizing out to a local contractor, nickel-plating to another contractor, and wood finishing was originally done by a close luthier friend of mine. Having done the armboards myself now I understand how much work that must have been for him.

With all that - I now see that having a one-stop shop to do this kind of work would be incredibly, incredibly expensive, and am grateful that there are local servicing companies to outsource some of the work (just the anodizing setup required is huge). And thus I now understand why many, many turntable manufacturers are actually part designers, and have OEMs to deliver their final product.
 
To add one more thing.

You could, technically, contract out all work to different people and have them deliver parts to your specification. Most often than not, tiny variations make those parts not fully fit with each other, and it is quite the necessity to have a central workshop to have them fit seamlessly and correct yours (and theirs) mistakes.
 
Well this didn't last long...

Luckily, (1) SME 3009 prices are still on the rise, and (2) there are no more free tonearm mounts on the turntable, or I would be tempted to do another.

...seems I absolutely love contradicting myself.

1.jpg


And then - there were three.

2.jpg


And one more.

3.jpg


Restoration details almost identical to the previous case, details here.
 
I have just found this thread and have to say even though I don’t understand a lot of the work that has gone into this, I am amazed at the effort and results.

Turning to the idea of an air supply for an air bearing, as I recharge my pcp air rifles, have you thought of a dive cylinder and if a smaller footprint is needed, buddy bottles?
 
I have to admit I relinquished the idea of an air bearing for another time, if any.

There are some very rough calculations I did, and according to those, I am not able to achieve the desired stiffness of an air bearing - certainly not without keeping a smaller footprint and an acceptable budget.

It is funny - there has been more than a year without me wanting to change anything so I guess the project has served its purpose and lead me to more listening and less tinkering.
 
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Been a sort of wheels and tires day.

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This has been in the works for some time now - change the aesthetics of the turntable and rack supports as well as improve suspension slightly, thinking I've learned a thing or two these past few years.

All hardware is now 6082 aluminium, clear anodized, with embedded ceramic balls of high sphericity. Thin flat bushings are PTFE (Teflon), and the top caps are POM (Delrin). All gripping surfaces lightly knurled (POM took some trial to make look good and feel good when using).

I took apart everything and also did a deep clean, as there was no other way to swap the feet of the rack itself. What followed was a rough setup of the tonearms, with a detailed one to come over the weekend, hopefully.

After assembly:

viber-image-2023-06-29-16-40-50-072.jpg
 


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