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DIY Tonearm ideas for Lenco

RichShortland

RichShortland

pfm Member
Hello all
I have a modified Lenco L75 with a stacked platter in a nice heavy multi layer plywood plinth, plus a modified main bearing.

I want to build a DIY Tonearm but I’m looking for suggestions for designs. I’m open to 9” or 12”, don’t have access to very advanced workshop machinery but I’m fairly handy, and do like the sound of a good unipivot so was thinking I may start there. I have also asked over on Lenco Heaven.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Richard
 
Unipivot or a Schroeder clone (magnet and fishing-line) seem the most accessible designs for those without real precision machining to hand. Both appeal as they are such a wonderfully simple and elegant approach.
 
What about a golf ball in a pot of silicon oil design
These have been built both commercially and DIY

Just need a nice wand (6 or 8mm carbon fibre tube from a model shop) and your nearly there..
 
Another VERY simple design is the pseudo unipivot principle used by Hadcock (more latterly claimed by others).

The cunning bit is design and finish of the male part - the pin that sits in the 3 ball bearings. Spend a while with some trigonometry and a slick and simple answer to that should become apparent...…..
 
Mynamemynaim said:
What about a golf ball in a pot of silicon oil design
These have been built both commercially and DIY

Just need a nice wand (6 or 8mm carbon fibre tube from a model shop) and your nearly there..
Click to expand...
I'd go this way. Suspended unipivot, make it in an afternoon using hand tools, sounds good enough for the WT Amadeus. And that's rather good. Apparently you can get used golf clubs for next to nothing and cut the shafts down accordingly.
 
So... I missed out on the faulty WT Amadeus armwand that was on ebay, which would have been my start point, so I have had a stab at a prototype WT type arm with carbon arm wand and golfball/silicone damper.
Shaft is an alu/carbon arrow which is lovely and light/stiff.

Initial listen is VERY positive. Already sounding better than the Roksan NIMA it replaced.
I put a lot of that down to the silver tonearm wiring and the very simple fishingline bearing.
It's a very tweaky design and I think there is more to come.

Next step is to build a more permanent version with neater finish and some better materials. It's very rough at the minute.
Going to try a constrained layer armboard using carbon fibre sheet.
Plus the armtube could be damped internally with silicone once I've locked down the design.
 
How about a copy of the Transcriptors Vestigal tonearm? The real ones looked home-made already. They used a hat pin for the finger lift.

666vestigalarm.2.jpg


images


images
 
RichShortland said:
So... I missed out on the faulty WT Amadeus armwand that was on ebay, which would have been my start point, so I have had a stab at a prototype WT type arm with carbon arm wand and golfball/silicone damper.
...
Next step is to build a more permanent version with neater finish and some better materials. It's very rough at the minute.
Click to expand...
Just like the original then?
 
So here's the proof of concept prototype. Sounds awesome, even in this basic state.
I'm pulling together the parts to do it properly next.
(the record is sacrificial and sits on there all the time in lieu of a proper cover btw)

IMG-1562.jpg

IMG-1563.jpg

IMG-1564.jpg
 
Yank said:
How about a copy of the Transcriptors Vestigal tonearm? The real ones looked home-made already. They used a hat pin for the finger lift.

666vestigalarm.2.jpg


images


images
Click to expand...

I have one, it's marvellous and really not at all 'home made' - "Heath Robinson' - yes, but it is made from some beautifully machined parts and is amazingly ajustable, with magnetic bias, adjustable bearings, azimuth adjustments etc. The whole thing looks and feels like it was made by a fine watchmaker - possibly one that had never seen a turntable before - working well with my totally incompatible Decca London Gold!
 
I think there was an article in a magazine detailing the idea of a damped string suspended tonearm before WT launched theirs. I was tempted to build one, but I had a LP12 Ittok at the time, so couldn't really see myself dismantling my single most expensive possession to stick a home made arm on it. I did build a balsa wood unipivot in the late '70s but then found a 'proper' arm at a decent price, so it wasn't used for very long.
 
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