Holy Crap, Jimmy Neutron indeed!! I'll stick to something easy, like the Intergalactic Spaceship I'm building using a television screen as protection against meteorite strikes (NOT LCD, as those screens aren't unbreakable like the old-fashioned TV screens are) on the body of the spacecraft, a Volkswagon Beetle (air tight), a microwave oven and an air-ionizer, which I'll convert into an ion-thrust engine. The only problem is getting the thing into space, so I plan to sneak onto NASA's cape Canaveral and duct-tape my spacecraft to the exterior of the next launch unit during the night. My plan being, to accelerate to a large fraction of the speed of light once free of Earth's gravitational field, then return to Earth in the future to start a re-examination of the concept of Progress using vintage audio, assuming humanity is still able to speak at that future point, as writing is already on the way out (as I discovered when in written contact with the isurance section of Purolator, a shipping agency which had lost an item and refused fair compensation by sticking to the fine print: avoid avoid Wil Robinson!!!), and television ain't doing us any favours. But keep us posted as to your progress Mario, we'll watch in awe from afar!!
Over here I am restoring a local fellow's Lenco L70 (my first one!!) with the Dreaded Plastic Wheel. The complaint being "It's noisy". Yes, noisy as Hell: I could hear it down the hall through the closed door of my bedroom as I left it to run overnight after cleaning and relubricating main bearing, motor, and idler-wheel bearing. The wheel was straight with no flat spots, it had simply hardened over the years. Nothing helped, not soaking in liquid detergent, not lacquer thinner, not Rubber Renew. But being such a noisy beast it provided me a chance to re-experiment; like tuning a motor by deliberately leaving it on a hard surface exaggerate/amplify the noise in order to bring it down to a minimum. I noticed that simply by placing my hand on the top-plate the noise reduced considerably in volume. Extrapolating from this we can see how effective damping materials applied to the top-plate are in reducing noise, and if so for a noisy Lenco, then so for an already-quiet Lenco, allowing fine details to be more easily heard. The Lenco was sitting loosely in my old Blue Bomber Direct Coupling plinth. I noticed that by pressing down so the bottom of the top-plate contacted the "shims"/cut-out/second Coupling layer, the noise reduced even further. I stood on the Lenco top-plate while it was playing (yes, I know, don't believe the deliberate and misleading exaggerations of the Lenco "weaknesses", it withstood my full weight without a problem), and the noise reduced even further, showing that direct coupling DOES reduce noise considerably, and if so much for a very loud noisy Lenco, then what is it doing for an already quiet Lenco? Extrapolating, we can understand that the difference is likely of the same magnitude, the already inaudible noise-floor dropping even further to allow yet more information to emerge from the grooves and a deep-black background (not digital-black with no - CHOKE! - air, but analogue black where the air of a venue becomes more and more audible). Finally, I threw a simple rubber mat on the platter and the noise was again audibly reduced, and so extrapolating once again, we can see how gluing a rubber mat to the platter will be even more effective.
I had another plastic wheel left over from old days, and I tested it by feel, and it seemed to me that it was ever-so-slightly softer and more pliant than plastic wheel #1, so slightly in fact that it seemed it could be my imagination. Nevertheless, I removed wheel #1, and cleaned and re-lubed wheel #2 and dropped it in. The noise, with the accumulation of all these steps, was now completely gone, showing that after all plastic wheels can be made to be decent. It also shows that different plastic wheels had different formulations. Next step is to have the plastic wheels re-rubbered and ground in Missouri I believe it is, to see just how far I can take a plastic wheel. Lencos are getting scarce, and we can no longer afford to chuck aside the plastic wheels!!
Anyway, I'm thankful for the chance to work on this problematic L70, which was like taking a crash course/re-cap of all we have been doing since the beginning!! Refreshing to get a noisy one and hear so clearly what each step brings!! The fellow will be astonished when he claps ears on his Lenco now! I'm also applying what came so clear to me with the L70 to the Garrard 301 I am rebuilding, a brainstorm hitting immediately afterwards leading to a re-design of the plinth and the mounting arrangement.
Anyway, now it's back to my own Lenco, enjoy your idler-wheels all!!
