All Travels Begin With A First Step :
Yesterday , the Maplenoll began its journey back to a box of parts. This is not the first time that I disassembled the Maplenoll. The change here is to completely break apart the 'Noll ... part by part, sub-assembly to its components that are to be examined , cleaned , renewed or replaced. This is a top down revision that I believe will substancially upgrade this table into a direction with the finest air bearing tables .
My first objectives were the Tone-Arm Lift , the Air Bearing Tube & Platter in that order.
The Tone-Arm Lift has never seemed to move smoothly , now I understand the reason; the block body was cut too wide obscuring the need for a clip to secure the stainless steel rod offset into the lifter. Without the clip , the rod had too much play shifting ever so little as rotated stressing the cantilever & stylas as they entered into the LP grove. I bought the Noll from Fred Kaplan , TAS reviewer. I don't think he ever understood why the cartridge suspensions were trashing out on a couple of his Hi-priced carts. Oh, Fred, thanks for the AQ 7000 after a redo it works great.
Following a lot of sanding , miking and plain grunt work, the lift moves perfectly w/ no slop. Another discovery, sanding the block to be a dense materal that's rock hard ,grey in color and quite dead to a knuckel rap . It appears to be a plastic resin of some sort. Since Bob D. was also a weapons designer who knows -- Maybe surplus stock from other project? Well, only Bob or LLoyd know and they arn't a part of this thread (yet). Next it was off to Home Depot for Rust-Oleum "Professional" Primer. Its as good as they note on the can, highly recommended.
The Air Bearing Tube :
After all the head work I did on this one the answer was so simple; Just pop the plug on one side & fill the inner space with Dap Tex-Pluse , a window & door foam sealant. Hi-Tect foam that expands slowly allowing for the tubes re-capping. The end result ? As lightweight as before & no ringing . Within hours that tube was as dead to a rap as I have experienced. Now for the Big Momma ...
The lead Platter : This was to be a 600 grit work-over , as I had done before but my inner sprit got caught up in the moment: Starting back side to front , grunt work began safety first its Lead , respirator , gloves & glasses on so the sanding began -- for hours . I found that paint covered hundreds of casting inperfections that eventually disapeared as I sanded /to polished the back to a satin finish. The old addage " painters hide the mistakes of carpenters " applied here. I removed almost all gouges, imperfections and casting lines, not to mention a myrad of lathe marks. A good dusting and then several coats of primer that leveled into imperfections so small you needed a mag glasses to see them. The gang at Rust-Oleum knows what they are doing. Enought daylight for clean-up. On to another day.
