DIY Linear Tracking tonearm

[Lordhenley]

Ive been toying with the idea of making one of these based on the Cantus theory which uses bearings running along a track. Has anyone on here taken on such a project, would be interested to hear any feedback on wether it was worth doing.

Here is a link to 193 pages of DIY Linear Tracking tonearm builds

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/analogue-source/238027-diy-linear-tonearm.html

 

[LesW]

My friend, the late Tom Fletcher, once marketed one such
device but ran into probs with dust in the bearings causing
"stickiness". YMMV of course.

 

[PigletsDad]

There are also some diy air-bearing linear designs like:
http://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=12171.0
http://attitube.com/diy-record-player/diy-tonearms/air-bearing/

and the original Ladegrad design

http://n4rp.com/airbearingarm.html

 

[Lordhenley]

I thought about the air suspended tonearm and still may have a look at it. When I was at the Whittlebury show last week I had a look at the arm on the Clearaudio TT which used the rolling bearing principles of Cantus, beautifully put together however the bearings were exposed to dust as per the Tom Fletcher / Cantus design, I wonder how they get round the dust issue?