Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II

There's no way that you can use the inside rim of the Lenco platter. It has vertical extrusions all around. Mine anyway (L75).

I have a couple of Lenco platters, one has ridges around the rim inside and the other doesn't. No way you could design a "universal" Lenco motor using rim drive, you'd have to drive the underside of the platter.

But the other question about the Garrard motor, when the original motor is off the rim drive wheel is moved away from the platter to prevent a flat spot - that's one of the functions of the linkage.. The Lenco doesn't have that problem because the wheel is metal with just a thin rubber coating. How does the Verus motor prevent flat spotting if it is rigidly mounted on the Garrard?

Chris, Since you have already stimulated responses from some Lenco-lytes, let me add another possible bone of contention: "We" tend to think that the Lenco drive system, where the underside of the platter is in contact with the idler drive system, not the inner rim of the platter, may have some inherent superiority over conventional rim drive. (This may be correct thinking or it may not be; I'd be interested in your comments.) Rightly or wrongly you might have a hard time converting "us" to rim drive for that reason. Now, if you can conceive and execute an idler drive system that is quieter and utilizes a motor that is superior to that of the Lenco, you may have something. As I suggested earlier, there may be a way to mount your drive wheel in a vertical orientation such that it can directly contact the underside of a Lenco platter. There are attendant problems related to how to maintain the proper and constant pressure against the platter in such a set-up, but not unsolvable ones.

A combination of the platter and bearing of the Bogen B60/61 and the flat chassis plate from a B55, will provide a suitable outer rim for the low height Verus. In the first instance for testing the application this is the Lenco(stein) to use. What makes a Lenco vertical drive good is the clever application of the spring mounted motor and superb idler wheel, but rim drive is working fine for other platters and will work as well on a Lenco.

The Verus will allow us to audition platters and bearings in a way not possible before. This has far reaching possibilities, I hope Chris is ready!

Regards

Hi Chris,

It’s an honor for many of us to have you post to this, the 2nd iteration of the “Home Despot” idler discussions, as well as your consideration of the possible candidacy of the Lenco as a platform for the Verus motor.

After reading the Teres promotional material about this motor and drive system, a couple of questions have occurred to me that I hope you can elaborate on. At first blush, they may seem to be “challenging”, but be assured that the purpose is one of inquiry into the discipline of what drives a record, and drives us all in this pursuit.

Unlike a true idler, the tire of which can take wear without affecting the speed relationship between motor and platter, the Verus motor’s direct drive wheel will have a direct effect on speed as it wears (quite correctable, no doubt). Should Verus owners hang onto those stroboscope discs, which they are encouraged to discard in promotional literature, for just such an event? Is there a way to recalibrate the “speed lock” for anticipated wear?

Secondly, is a general question on the area of variable torque. Coming from a camp where hard-cranking, big idlers are often the “quest”, it seems curious that Teres would put engineering effort into a low-torque optional adjustment. The promotional material leads one to believe that this option allows for a smoothness in listening playback. Is this smoothness, in fact, the “wow” of imprecise speed?

Many thanks for your continuing contributions here.

All best,
Mario