Help! Antiskate with only a weight...no dial, and she's skating away!

I know that Im starting a war, but in MY system... with Ortofon Winfield, no a/s sounds better to me.  A/s closes in and shortens the aural picture. 

No, the inner notches are less mechanical leverage, less anti-skate. The owner’s manual is right about that. This method is the same as my Origin Live Conqueror, only the attachment points and adjustments differ but it is the same basic design. It is hard to tell without seeing the weight to know how heavy it is but the whole thing looks like it can’t possibly have enough leverage unless the weight is pretty heavy. Which indeed seems to be the case, not enough anti-skate.

First, no worries you haven’t and won’t harm anything. Second, the test for anti-skate is listening and test tracks and it passes flying colors so that is another reason to know there is nothing to worry about. Finally, you are new to LP so in time will learn this, but some records are not perfectly flat all the way to the edge. Look real close you will see some are kind of thick at the edge then dip down before going flat. I think all that is happening is you have a couple of those, when the stylus comes down on that it hits a flat spot starts skating downhill as it were towards the center gains speed and maybe sometimes skips a bit at the beginning before settling down and all is well. I have one or two of these myself. Next time it happens, cue it back up, line it up to drop right where the music starts instead of the lead-in groove, lower carefully, then see what happens. I bet it plays just fine.

So I’m calling it good enough already and our assignment is to see if there is room to make it even better. Simple project, take one or two appropriately sized metal washers and slide the string through so one sits on top of your counterweight. Wala, you now have more anti-skate force! See if that helps. If you want more simply add another washer. If this works then look for prettier washers. If you even can see it. Looks to me like it will be pretty well hidden. Anyway, there you go, problem solved.

As to why, anti-skate is one of the less critical aspects of setup. Some really expensive tables like VPI use an even hokier and more lame setup if you can imagine that, and almost completely unadjustable as well. To top it all off, it uses the twisting torque of the phono leads. Hard to imagine a dumber method and people do sometimes have problems but that hasn’t slowed them down any, still one of the biggest most respected names around. If VPI don’t sweat it and I don’t sweat it probably you don’t need to either.

OP what happens when you move the adjustment to the other end of the 3 groves? Does the tracking get worse or better? There isn't any STUFF on the little bars is there. Not sticky or anything. The thread is smooth AND not sticky..  I'm sure you've checked.. 

I'm out of ideas.. IF it's hooked up correct and it is the correct weight.

Take up golfing. :-)

I am not familiar with your arm and cartridge but from the picture i can understand that the notched rod is a thumb screw, what happens if you unscrew it a bit (making sure it still remains firm). That would increase the AS force a bit.
Normally AS force should be much less than tracking weight and is not implemented mechanically the same way on differently designed arms.
Applying more AS is like adding more tracking force but to one channel only so your sound will be more closed in amongst others.
Here comes your observation that on Analogue test Lp with limited AS the sound is equal to your ears, so you do not need more of it.

G

Thanks everyone for your replies. I address them below. Thanks!

millercarbon:
Thanks for the reply, info and encouragement. The antiskate weight is 3.485g (3.5g on their website). And yes I have noticed the kind of ski slope edge on some of the records which facilitate this accelerated slide, but it does the same if I place it in the space in between the run out grooves at the end of the record (where Peter from Soundsmith recommends assessing for antiskate). However I did as you suggested and it drops into the groove almost imperceptibly! But I want to be able to get back to my chair before the music starts!! Ha!

Before I read your post, I actually thought about the same and made a trip to Lowe's where I found some very small black washers (matched the color of the weight and very close diameter). I came home, weighed each and found them between 0.46g and 0.48g. So I added one by one and experimented on the blank side of record I have (Dave Grohl's Play has only one side) to see how much effect it had on slowing the skate across the record. I ended up adding four washers (roughly just under 2g) which only slowed the skate but not enough where the tonearm stops near the nullpoints. I listened and it still sounded good, but by this time it was late and I'll have to do more A/B later. Still makes me wonder why I have to do this anyway.

But it's interesting to know that there are manufacturer's who don't use antiskate and/or dismiss it as necessary? The physics of it seems logical to me that it need not be ignored, but what do I know?  Many searches of this topic have revealed that many people don't use it all and have stated their systems sound better sans antiskate. 

stringreen:
I wondered if the added weight didn't narrow the soundstage a bit, so I definitely will be A/B'ing as I said above.  I wonder, does your cantilever appear slanted to the left from the skating forces pulling it towards the record? If so, will that cause damage over time?

oldhyvmec:
I checked the grooves and there is nothing sticky on them and changing from one groove to another had zero effect. Watching the Masters!

petg60:
I considered loosening the screw--as it does indeed unscrew--but to make enough of an effect, it seemed that it would have to loosen too much and therefore be moveable in its slot, i.e. subject to vibration and thus adding unwanted vibration to the arm. 

bkeske:
yes I tried the other grooves to no avail. I wondered the same regarding this level of table/tonearm and the use of the string. But again, what do I know about any of this stuff... hence my questions and the need to learn.