New Maplenoll Ariadne owner needing advice

As you know,the Signature Ariadne has a much better plinth of corian and lead.

Piedpiper: I do. The corian encases a core of MDF and 2 lead center sheets . It certianly looks pur-dee and must sound better than the Reference stock.

For what its worth Bob D. said the Kaplan Table(the one I started with) was equal to all other Maplenolls.

Personally, I doubt the stock 'Noll was equal but that's what the man once said in a phone conversation. With all the improvements made to the base , I reserve judgement on best, better and da-bestest for later. Enjoy the moment.

Readers :A Couple of quick impressions. Word/Mind sketchbooks in no particular order;

The Electrical Harness : Well made hardware with a black cap , hurst motor , clean solder joints and garden variety line cord. Removed intact. To be cleaned, photographed and stored with all other parts removed from the Maplenoll.

Air Manifold Case : A Two'ish pound of finely machined Alum-type stock encasing the famed Dr. Lew Eckhart tone-arm air manifold made of the finest SS money can buy . The case only needs cosmetic work and painting. Note: I shot 100% I/O alcohol thru the tone-arm bearing not one drop of oil. The fact the tone-arm bearing is clean affirms the re-design of the air control system and the home-made air scrubbers. Same is true of the Table's Air Bearings.

The S/S circular , short-pipe supports for the tone-arm manifold were turned by a machinest to a hand-burnished satin finish. Once lightly steel wooled , beautiful look much better than wood and stronger. Supports filled with Roma Plastlinia #2 some of the finest professional modeling clay made w/ a history to the 12th Century. Perfect filler/dampener , will never harden , crust or deteriorate. More on Roma later. To be finished off with thin rubber washers before re-install. Must have cost real money to manufacture.

The Lead Platter: A grunt work project. Sanded, polished & primed, awaiting final paint application. 50lb-ish, too much to lug around. Not: Helpers required to move safetly.

Air Bearing tube, arm lift and tone-arm parts. All cleaned foam filled or adjusted and complete.

The Maplenoll Air Bearing : A thing of beauty. Casted in a foundary , hand machined and balanced. They are 8" in diameter , Lloyd Walker made his 11" in size. Now, I understand why.

The bearings are industral art . Since they started life in a foundary they actually ring like a bell of sorts. That my friend that is the secret to the music. I believe both top and bottom bearings are "tuned ". The ring has to much sustain for just an accident. I played guitar before the car accident, I know pitch . Using a tuning fork or a automated tuner it becomes apparent why these bearings ring with purpose. The secret to the table is to damp the bearings w/o destroying their "life". Now that I know what the "key" is harmonically" , tuning down is not that difficult. Kinda like tuning a guitar to the key of C or D Major. Note: The bearing base has three off-set threaded rods that act as taines ie. vibration drains , draining off unwanted pulsations thru the base and into a rubber bushing. The bushing is not any run of the mill bushing but a Ford shock absorber cap specifically designed to kill vibration.

Must have cost Mr.Ford millions to design over the past century .Smart move Bob D. applying automotive tectnology. Ford spent millions and I bought my bushing replacements for a little over $6.00. Thanks Bob, thanks Mr. Ford but most of all thanks to Paul @ PEP Boys who has a PHD in communications/ bushing knowledge. Go Army, go Paul ... Your the man.

The Back-Side of the Table:

A maze of cut-outs and holes. All are filled with Roma , threaded for use including the electrical box & motor mounting holes(both filled w/Roma). Note: Roma recommends shellacing any surface to which the clay is to be applied. Since Bob D. painted the back, black no need for shellac. Note: Helpers required to move safetly.

Everything I have done can be reversed just as quickly as pluged. All exposed electrical holes finished wooden plugs of various sizes for visual appeal. Much more to come.

Crem,

FYI, no MDF in the sig plinth; solid corian and lead. great work!

Now for the Flip Side:

Turning over the 'Noll table top-side uprevealed a different bag of worms -- challeges. Imagine a large Q cut-out 1" deep, thats what the top looks like naked an'all. The tail of the Q is the former cut-out for the top-side of the motor mount a slightly disoriented lead paramid with the top lopped off. The Hurst was seated in that flip, then the unit was screwed into the lead base . The off-set "O" is home to the bearings with a 1/2" moat surrounding the plates. I re-screwed the lead motor mount plate back into the flip coating it and the flip with a goodly amount of Roma, covering the "moat" with a thin coating of Roma. Just grunt work anybody can do. I was grunting when I noticed the lead base had buckeled over the years, a slightly convex affair. No problem a few taps of a rubber malot gently flatened the lead base. More on that later. Then a fopa on my part ; I dropped the tone-arm manifold onto a carpet. The manifold was intact but the plastic air inlet snapped off. No crisis but a sign I was tired ... Sleepy Time.