Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II

Fun that it's still here...I have been reading this thread for years, but never posted. I wonder how many people are really out there...

I finished my first - a Bogen B62 - just a few months ago - I am very happy with the results- Now I am starting a second. A Lenco L70, which essentially is the same table. These are the only ones I am interested in. I find the L75 unappealing to look at (don't ask, I am just that way).

Here's what I know - the hole for the tonearm for the L70 is small in diameter. And clearly there has been much discussion here of vta problems with all the decks with the lower platter- L70, L75, L78, etc...

The L70 has a different length tonearm than the L75. I want to use the stock hole, although I will drill it larger if necessary, on my L70. What is the perfect tonearm to use on an L70 which will give the right set up - correct VTA included, without changing the postition of the tonearm hole? I cut my first deck to mount an SME 3009. It works well, but I want to avoid cutting the second. Further - I would rather a "vintage looking" arm - that still sounds good...

And - if the original thread somehow doesn't make it back, I am sure that I am not alone in having saved all of it to a file. I have all of it up until roughly august 20 this year....somewhere...

Hi mario,
Thanks for the quick reply. There are 4 clips at the headshell. There appear to be three wires coming from the tonearm to the junction. If this describes wiring for a mono Hook-up (one speaker in the console perhaps) it seems that I should be able to simply rewire it for stereo. I intend to use the 75 arm, not sure of the cartridge... suggestions? I have done some minor repair work on my equipment so soldering isn't completely foreign to me. I have seen pics of a 75s wiring on the not strictly idler site, but I would rather have a more standard diagram of what do do. Thanks again for your help.
Widge29

Goughary,
If you really have the old thread filed upto this august many including me would like to have it.
Perhaps you could post it at the Lenco Lovers site that at the moment has a far less complete version of Da Thread online.
Very very much appreciated

Widge, if there are four wires at the headshell, it's a stereo hookup there. Three wires at the tonearm to the junction might be a common-grounded stereo hookup: one hot for each channel and a shared, common ground.

My in-progress Bogen still has its factory arm. It LOOKS at first glance to have three wires from the base of the arm to a tag strip where the output cables are soldered, but it's really two small diameter coaxial cables, each with a hot and a ground; and a single ground wire. That makes a total of FIVE wires soldered to separate tags.

If yours is a three-wire stereo hookup, that's exactly the same wiring system as is used on Decca cartridges. Even the new ones with four pins actually have the two ground pins tied together.

It should be easy enough to trace what goes where, using an ohm meter.

Hi Goughary, and welcome to "Da Thread II",

Sure glad we have another archivist in our midst. A well done coup in capturing all that! I'm sure many of us will be calling on you for copies.

As for your Bogen Lenco, Mike Greene and I both use the Sonus Formula IV unipivots on our Bogens - his is a 70 (I think) and mine is a 61 (I think). This arm is the longer tube version of the Mayware and it matches up nicely for spindle to pivot mounting distance on these early top plates. The stock mounting armhole of the Bogens will be just a couple of mms larger than the Sonus stub. This was close enough not to bother with a subplate armboard (at least, for me). Two fender washers (one plastic/one neoprene) do a fine job in securing the arm once the overhang has been set.

The VTA is a close call with these low-slung Lencos even with the Sonus adjusted to its lowest limit. The armlift mechanism will just about bottom out on the top plate depending how tall the cartridge is.