Vintage DD turntables. Are we living dangerously?

Great news Chak...🎉
There is a regulation described in the manual for altering the STOP function to match your platter mat +LP.
I had my Tech do it for my lightweight Victor Pigskin mat which is far lighter than the standard Victor rubber mat with which the turntable normally arrives.
And having the platter 'check' with a slight backwards movement when the STOP button is pressed...is considered normal.
You're a lucky man.....but there are no guarantees for the future.
You'd be wise to blow-out all the old solder joints and do them all again as I did, if you wish to sleep peacefully.

Great, so i can experiment first with different mats and clamps to match my current settings. My 1st sample move backward a bit after stop. but my 2nd sample does not move backward or forward after stop, so i assume this is ideal. Anyway it does not bother me much, both are ok.

The platter is lightweight compared to others, is it allowed to use heavy mats like Micro Seiki CU-180 (1.8kg) or CU-500 (2.7kg) ? Or much lighter mass are better ?

Do you hear any high frequency pulsation coming from the electronics near the disk when the rotation is "on" ? I have it on one sample only, but i barely hear it, anyway it’s there.

Is it true that no lubrication needed for 40 y.o. unit ?

Thinking about the plinth i’ve been looking at this amazing finishing, i really like it (all my custom racks are same color), why not just paint original Victor plinth like that to refresh it ? It is automotive? I’m gonna use mine with At-616 pneumatic footers under the original Victor plinth. But i hope i can paint the plinth (if i will find who can offer such beautiful finishing), it is probably better than new veneer ?

You can use the CU-180 but I don't know if there's enough adjustment available for such a weight...?
If that doesn't bother you...go for it.
I was more concerned with the weight on the bearing 🥴

No pulsation coming from the electronics on either the TT-101 or TT-81.

Is it true that no lubrication needed for 40 y.o. unit ?

Do you trust the Victor engineers....?
I do 🤗
I've never lubricated mine.
Just last week there was a soft drone coming from the platter once every revolution so I saw that the outer platter was too close to the fixed surround.
I opened it up, turned it upside down to access the control screw in the base and turned it clockwise.
If you turn it too much the motor won't turn at all.
If you back it off from there a bit....the motor will turn clockwise, stop, turn anticlockwise, stop, turn clockwise etc etc.
Back it off a bit from there.......
Goldilocks.....😃👍
No more murmur...

Yeah...nice finish Chak 😃
It may be hard to obtain on the existing veneer....?
Maybe a car body and paint-shop?

Another reason I was not comfortable using the CU-180 Copper mat was I feared it may compromise the workings of the Bi-Directional speed control.

Yeah...nice finish Chak 😃
It may be hard to obtain on the existing veneer....?
Maybe a car body and paint-shop?

I decided to try, maybe both methods (new veneer one one plinth and paint on another). What i don't like on original Victor plinth is that veneer surface on arm boards and on the plinth always mismatch. I think it's possible to prepare the original for new veneer (some nice exotic wood) or prepare it for proper automotive paint over the original plinth.