Elliot, No need to apologize for being curt. I enjoy these discussions, and I view them as a way to learn from others here. We are a very tiny fraternity of people who have even the slightest interest in most of these subjects, so vigorous debate makes us all better.
Your latest post is such a bewildering panoply of statements that I agree with and statements that I find completely incorrect that I will not try to dissect it all right now. But your opening statement was this: "It is NOT the grooves that make the inner motion, it is a natural force that occurs, and is proportional to tracking force."
Please tell me what is the "natural force"? VTF does affect the magnitude of the skating force in that higher VTF generates more friction in the groove. But without the force of friction (which is impossible in the real world) there would be zero skating force. I don't really care how many blank LPs one can buy on Amazon, nor do I care how many others set AS using a blank LP, the fact is that using a blank LP is not a rigorous way to set AS, because of the lack of grooves. Your alignment protractor, while it is probably fine when used as an alignment protractor, is an even worse tool for setting AS, because so far as I can tell, it is not made of vinyl. Hence the coefficient of friction between its surface and a diamond stylus is going to be different from that of vinyl to diamond. Now, when all is said and done, setting AS is always going to be sloppy, because during the course of playing an LP, the skating force is constantly varying in magnitude all across the surface of an LP, if you are using a conventional pivoted tonearm. Thus there is no one perfect setting for AS, which is why illogical methods for setting AS can sometimes "work". But it's best to understand at least the theory behind the process.
Your latest post is such a bewildering panoply of statements that I agree with and statements that I find completely incorrect that I will not try to dissect it all right now. But your opening statement was this: "It is NOT the grooves that make the inner motion, it is a natural force that occurs, and is proportional to tracking force."
Please tell me what is the "natural force"? VTF does affect the magnitude of the skating force in that higher VTF generates more friction in the groove. But without the force of friction (which is impossible in the real world) there would be zero skating force. I don't really care how many blank LPs one can buy on Amazon, nor do I care how many others set AS using a blank LP, the fact is that using a blank LP is not a rigorous way to set AS, because of the lack of grooves. Your alignment protractor, while it is probably fine when used as an alignment protractor, is an even worse tool for setting AS, because so far as I can tell, it is not made of vinyl. Hence the coefficient of friction between its surface and a diamond stylus is going to be different from that of vinyl to diamond. Now, when all is said and done, setting AS is always going to be sloppy, because during the course of playing an LP, the skating force is constantly varying in magnitude all across the surface of an LP, if you are using a conventional pivoted tonearm. Thus there is no one perfect setting for AS, which is why illogical methods for setting AS can sometimes "work". But it's best to understand at least the theory behind the process.