Have a Victor UA-7045 tonearm coming


I've been searching for either a Victor UA-7082 or a UA-7045 tonearm ever since I purchased my Victor CL-P2 plinth with two arm boards.
The rear arm is almost ready to go, it's a Audio Technica ATP-12T mounted in a custom aluminum armboard. I also had to machine a bracket to add a Jelco JL-45 tonearm cueing device and a tonearm rest. This should be perfect for my low compliance DL-103.I have been looking at both models of the Victor arms and have posted WTB on several forums, watching Ebay but nothing nice has come up. So for the past month I have been keeping an eye out on the Japanese website Yahoo Buyee and finally saw something I liked. It's a clean looking UA-7045 that should work out nicely.
https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/v741873067?_=cnZxVG5GZVlFQTA3VEZVTDBjQnRCS1RGYWtnTW1ZOTZORUVmb2R...=I won the auction this morning for $202.81, way cheaper than I've ever seen one of these go for. estimated shipping is around $50.00 via DHL. It takes up to two weeks for the seller to get the arm shipped to Buyee and they will inspect and repackage it for shipment via DHL. So in several weeks I'll have this in my hands.
Since I know the spindle to pivot distance I will machine an armboard for it in advance.
Anybody familiar with this series of arms knows all about the rubber damper in the counterweight stub that degrades and causes the dreaded tonearm droop where the weight starts hanging down.
There are two types of this series of arms, those that have the droop (most) and those that will develop it soon. Aging rubber and gravity never let up. Every arm will eventually have this problem.
I've talked to my friend Elliott about this as he had one of these arms for a short time. He sent me a sketch of a rubber piece that he made from hardware parts that he used to fix his. Between Elliott and the internet I found enough info to figure out how this comes apart but I'm not entirely happy with the fix. Since Victor can't supply the rubber dampers I've been thinking about possibly making a mold and casting them out of urethane. I have samples of urethane coming to me from a supplier so I can compare the hardness of the rubber bushing to the urethane samples to find a close matching durometer value.
The mold will be a simple affair, machined out of aluminum. I need to dig out a vacuum pump buried in my garage to see if it works and I found a vacuum chamber on Ebay for 50 bucks.
Once I get the arm I'll pull the stub off and get some critical measurements and work from there. I can even do a temporary fix on the stub until I have a decent result as I have never cast urethane before.Anyway, I'm very excited to be getting this tonearm and at least one member here (chakster) talks very highly of it.

BillWojo




billwojo
Well it wasn't supposed to arrive till Wednesday but it came this afternoon. Very well packed, I paid extra for having it repacked. DHL works on a holiday!
So far this far exceeds my expectations, it looks like brand new and has zero tonearm sag!
Not sure when I'll get to my buddy's shop to use his Bridgeport, I'll need to bore a hole out to mount it.
It's an absolutely beautiful piece of engineering and craftsmanship. Even the tonearm lock is at a whole another level compared to any tonearm I've handled before. The "On the Fly" VTA collar works as smooth as a focusing ring on a high dollar camera. The anti skating adjustment is smooth as silk as well. When set to zero the arm stays where you put it and as soon as you start dialing a little bit in it will start to swing. Very sensitive!
I'm very happy.
Now I want to find a UA-7082 in this condition. That may take awhile.

BillWojo
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Sounds like you got a great deal there Bill.

I had both a tt81 in a cl92 plinth and a tt71 badged as a qla7.
The 81 cw 7082.
The 71 cw 7045.

The 7082 did suffer some minor droop which may have effected it as it just never sounded quite as nice as the 7045 which was near perfect.

I agree the build quality is amazing and the vta adjustment is very slick, possibly only surpassed by my present micro Seiki ma505ls arm.

Enjoy!
I have the 7045, and I have owned the MS MA505.  I agree that both of them are beautifully made. If you like industrial art, the word "exquisite" would not be out of place.
Thanks guys. Currently I’m using a JVC QL-A7 with the UA-5045 tonearm that has auto lift. It’s a nice tonearm but this is even much, much nicer than that. Fit and finish on this reminds me of a high end camera. This doesn’t even have any minor scratching on the tonearm tube. Who ever owned the table this came off of either was fastidious about using it or never used it. I can’t wait to hear it.I’m going to mount my retipped DL-103S on it. Has an elliptical stylus. Tracking will be around 1.8Gr. How have you found the anti skating adjustment to be? I don’t have any of the fancy setup tools to check it. If I set the adjustment to 1.8Gr will it be very close?

BillWojo