New Maplenoll Ariadne owner needing advice

Charlie
Thanks for the tips. I have already cleaned the spindle and the air openings/chamber using a good solvent and carefully dried everything. I have not applied an exterior finish as you have suggested, but i will try that. I have notices one of the spare parts in the box of items was an airbearing tube that was not the typical aluminum finish but some type of applied finish that is much smoother than some of the other bearing tubes. great idea. I am still awaiting the balance of the platter. I know that will improve the effectiveness of the system. I am toying with an idea to try on one of the old bearing plates i have. You can improve the effectiveness of the airbearing plate by going to multiple air ports versus the single source. Not an easy task because you have to carefully control the orifice size of the port but if done properly, you could improve the balance of the system using 6 or 8 orifices. The platter dynamics become more stable and the "stiffness" of the airbear improves and less wobble occurs. (at least that is what i think i am learning from studying the theory around the airbearing). If it doesnt work, i still havent lost much because the plates have to be polished and resurfaced anyway. I know I have promised some pics and I will get some soon. Thanks again for the support and tips. By the way, the teflon centerpin is working pretty good.

Tom, I look forward to your future posts. Glad to know the teflon pin works so well; your idea of multiable ports does appear to resolve many issues.

I should get my platter tommorrow:^0 i will lose about 1/8 in on diameter to get it trued up. But it is supposed to be perfectly balanced. I will soon see. The theory around the multiple ports on the bearing is similar to the one on the arm spindle that keeps the spindle centered. Key is drilling the port about 1/1000 in. I have found a machine shop who can do this for me. Not sure that the project would be commercially viable since the procedure will cost a little money. Still got to design the manifold or well to ensure each port sees the same air pressure. Got a couple ideas, but nothing specifically designed yet. The existing design should still work well if the platter is balanced and the bearing plate is true. You brought up that point earlier and that is the problem with the old set of plates that was in the box of parts.

Tom, Is it possible that the old set of plates with warp be corrected and trued ?

Charlie---good question that i am not 100% sure that it can be. Some of the information on various forums based on actual discussions with Dilger would suggest difficulty in doing it. In fact one string suggested that dilger had many of the plates originally produce and the reject rate was tremendous because of warping and trueness. Others have warned about cracking during polishing or grinding of a slightly warped plate. Talking to the machine shop that trued my platter(just recieved it today), he says he can handle it. His work on the platter was exceptional. I mounted it tonite and wow, it looks sharp. I have noticed an improvement in background noise with this table compared to my other ariadne.
Again, back to your original question, i will be able to report back in a few weeks on its success or not. The ones i have are not severely warped so the shop feels that a hard polishing will true up the platter. They have experience with lots of different materials including ceramics so they feel they can handle it. I will also have the shop bore 8 air ports on the platter. I will develop a plate that will install on the bottom to serve as an airplenum that will feed the 8 ports. The holes will be in two concentric circles to cover the entire width of the bearing surface.