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Pro-ject record cleaning machines - changing felt on vacuum tube

T

tiggers

pfm Member
To those of you who own a Pro-ject record cleaning machine how often do you change the 'felt' pad around the vacuum tube opening? It seems that it won't take much for it to wear down and potentially allow the metal of the arm to contact the record which would be somewhat counter productive and is particularly likely given the vacuum is pulling the arm down onto the record. I wish the felt was a little bit deeper/more substantial to be honest.

While the machine works I do feel it isn't terribly well engineered. The motor on mine is very noisy but as Pro-ject wanted £100 for a new one I have left it... will source one myself as I'm sure it'll be a widely used generic motor and available for tuppence ha'penny on eBay or the likes. The there's the vacuum noise... sounds like a plane taking off :D
 
tiggers said:
To those of you who own a Pro-ject record cleaning machine how often do you change the 'felt' pad around the vacuum tube opening? It seems that it won't take much for it to wear down and potentially allow the metal of the arm to contact the record which would be somewhat counter productive and is particularly likely given the vacuum is pulling the arm down onto the record. I wish the felt was a little bit deeper/more substantial to be honest.

While the machine works I do feel it isn't terribly well engineered. The motor on mine is very noisy but as Pro-ject wanted £100 for a new one I have left it... will source one myself as I'm sure it'll be a widely used generic motor and available for tuppence ha'penny on eBay or the likes. The there's the vacuum noise... sounds like a plane taking off :D
Click to expand...
Ah've cleaned around 200-230 albums since buying my Pro-ject. The felt pad still looks brand new. I press a dry cloth on it, when finished cleaning, then give it a couple of strokes with a wee soft brush.
Mine's cost around a quarter of the usual suspects, so was not expecting it to be sophisticated. :cool:
 
tiggers said:
To those of you who own a Pro-ject record cleaning machine how often do you change the 'felt' pad around the vacuum tube opening? It seems that it won't take much for it to wear down and potentially allow the metal of the arm to contact the record which would be somewhat counter productive and is particularly likely given the vacuum is pulling the arm down onto the record. I wish the felt was a little bit deeper/more substantial to be honest.

While the machine works I do feel it isn't terribly well engineered. The motor on mine is very noisy but as Pro-ject wanted £100 for a new one I have left it... will source one myself as I'm sure it'll be a widely used generic motor and available for tuppence ha'penny on eBay or the likes. The there's the vacuum noise... sounds like a plane taking off :D
Click to expand...
I don't use my Pro-Ject anymore but when I did felt pads were replaced no earlier than at least 200 LPs, have you tried adjusting platter height?
 
tiggers said:
To those of you who own a Pro-ject record cleaning machine how often do you change the 'felt' pad around the vacuum tube opening? It seems that it won't take much for it to wear down and potentially allow the metal of the arm to contact the record which would be somewhat counter productive and is particularly likely given the vacuum is pulling the arm down onto the record. I wish the felt was a little bit deeper/more substantial to be honest.

While the machine works I do feel it isn't terribly well engineered. The motor on mine is very noisy but as Pro-ject wanted £100 for a new one I have left it... will source one myself as I'm sure it'll be a widely used generic motor and available for tuppence ha'penny on eBay or the likes. The there's the vacuum noise... sounds like a plane taking off :D
Click to expand...
Watch or listen out for that noisey motor. Most likely it is the vacuum pump starting for fail. Mine killed itself after about 3000 lps. Got noisey then one day dark smoke came out the exhaust along with a grinding noise.
The bearings inside draw moisture into themselves and the lubrication gets drawn through the vac pump. Is the liquid you sucking off the records got an orange look about it ?
Anyway, mine was just still in warrenty and the motor/pump replaced FoC.
 
I've changed mine 3 times now, I think. I've probably done around 1000 sides. I don't use IPA very often but it does soften the adhesive.
 
Thegreatroberto said:
Watch or listen out for that noisey motor. Most likely it is the vacuum pump starting for fail. Mine killed itself after about 3000 lps. Got noisey then one day dark smoke came out the exhaust along with a grinding noise.
The bearings inside draw moisture into themselves and the lubrication gets drawn through the vac pump. Is the liquid you sucking off the records got an orange look about it ?
Anyway, mine was just still in warrenty and the motor/pump replaced FoC.
Click to expand...
The motor that is noisy is the motor that rotates the record, it's making a grinding noise.
 
Thegreatroberto said:
I'm not convinced the Projects are a quality build. Cheap commercial parts stuffed into a box. I looked inside mine, what a mess of wires etc.
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So, had mine in pieces last night as wanted the motor specs for the vac and the rotation. The casing is pretty good, the machining's a little rough, but it's not bad. The innards however are very... shall we say basic. The motors are:

Vacuum: Ametek Lamb Tangential vacuum motor (Manufacturer Model # 119412-13)
Rotation: 60KTYZ 30rpm CW/CCW 240V/50Hz 14 W

The rotational motor is obviously cheap as chips Chinese tat and replacements can be had for £20. However, I suspect the grinding noise will be there in all of them to an extent as the motor feels as rough as a bears butt when you manually turn it. Chocolate bearings I guess.

The vac motor does seem better, but at a replacement cost of £135 it ought to. The waterproofing seems OK, but I can see what the poster above means about it being susceptible over time to water ingress. The rest of the build is a bit Heath Robinson, but it's adequate I guess.

All that said I think I'd buy differently if I had the choice. I know a better cleaner would be more money, but it would give me peace of mind... this one feels it could pack in at any time... maybe that's unfair but time will tell I guess.

Thanks everyone for your replies on the thread, all appreciated.
 
To be fair they're sold for home use, which will be a few sides a week tops. I guess the issue is that people will hit it with a whole collection when they first buy one...
 
tiggers said:
So, had mine in pieces last night as wanted the motor specs for the vac and the rotation. The casing is pretty good, the machining's a little rough, but it's not bad. The innards however are very... shall we say basic. The motors are:

Vacuum: Ametek Lamb Tangential vacuum motor (Manufacturer Model # 119412-13)
Rotation: 60KTYZ 30rpm CW/CCW 240V/50Hz 14 W

The rotational motor is obviously cheap as chips Chinese tat and replacements can be had for £20. However, I suspect the grinding noise will be there in all of them to an extent as the motor feels as rough as a bears butt when you manually turn it. Chocolate bearings I guess.

The vac motor does seem better, but at a replacement cost of £135 it ought to. The waterproofing seems OK, but I can see what the poster above means about it being susceptible over time to water ingress. The rest of the build is a bit Heath Robinson, but it's adequate I guess.

All that said I think I'd buy differently if I had the choice. I know a better cleaner would be more money, but it would give me peace of mind... this one feels it could pack in at any time... maybe that's unfair but time will tell I guess.

Thanks everyone for your replies on the thread, all appreciated.
Click to expand...
It was my vac pump that failed dramatically. Grinding noises for a while then I suspect the pump bearings failed and allowed the plastic pump rotor to clash with the pump casing. Resulting in black bits coming out the exhaust.

Looking back, the dirty water I was removing started to get more yellow then orange the preceeding weeks. I think this was any lubricant being drawn out of the bearings, into the pump and hence the waste water.
 
Thegreatroberto said:
It was my vac pump that failed dramatically. Grinding noises for a while then I suspect the pump bearings failed and allowed the plastic pump rotor to clash with the pump casing. Resulting in black bits coming out the exhaust.

Looking back, the dirty water I was removing started to get more yellow then orange the preceeding weeks. I think this was any lubricant being drawn out of the bearings, into the pump and hence the waste water.
Click to expand...
Not the best for a £135 part, but as Gav said maybe it is not really intended to be hammered. I'll see how mine goes as I've a lot of records to clean in the next few months.
 
I have one of these and, as has already been said, I hammered it as soon as I got it cleaning all my records. I accept that the device is for home/modest use rather than for a record shop and so far it’s been brilliant whiteout issue. I’ve had mine about a year or so and it’s done 300 or so sides.

I wouldn’t be without a record cleaner as I’ve mentioned on here before, they have the ability to make proper VG+ records from Discogs graded VG+ records which, often, aren’t.

Thanks to Tiggers for noting the part numbers of the motors although I hope I’ll not need to refer back.
 
I have owned my Project for 3+ years now, cleaned 1,000s of records used to get the grinding noise but not any more, all I did was remove the arm and spray WD40 into the machine, and then it goes, Never replaced the felt looks and feels OK, but I do wipe it down like the machine after each use.
 
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