Inspired by Jean Nantais. If it wasn't for the Lenco thread on Audiogon my L78 which was given to me by a friend may have never been resurrected from the garage or worse - given/ thrown away. The horror! Many thanks to Jean for his enthusiasm and generosity in sharing his knowledge along with Vinyl Engine and Arthur Salvatore who must be one of the deepest thinkers in audio.
The base material is 19mm StructaFlor (chipboard bonded with stong waterproof resins that make it very stiff and dense) and 4mm hardboard. The central layer is 6mm Alucobond (aluminium/resin composite).
Alternate layers are screwed together which made it a lot easier to fabricate. The armboards are Karri hardwood which is very dense and blunt tools in no time. Almost the entire underside of the turntable has been damped with a lead doped vinyl sheet and neoprene. Most moving parts have also had some form of damping material bonded to them.
The original design was to accommodate only two arms but having ordered the mg-1 air bearing arm from lin it has been modified to fit the arm at the back of the plinth.
There is also a filtered i.e.c. socket routed into the plinth at the back so i can experiment with leads.
The Base will be a similar composite layer construction with an air bag and alucobond damping layers
hi Dewald the balsa arm sounds very interesting indeed. two of the armboards are allocated to the mg-1 and my own arm so i have free spot - perfect! please post more info on your arm. regards peter w
hi oregon this image is just a rendering in autocad that was done as a massing model to see the proportions of the finished plinth and base (i was a bit worried about it looking like a fat blob because of its size). its very close to as built so far but with different materials. the basic shape was not that hard to do with a good jigsaw. you just need a steady hand. cutting the turntable itself for the central armboard was far more traumatic as used lencos aren't exactly thick on the ground in aust. and a slip-up was not worth contemplating. i'd need to be a cabinetmaker to put together a solid hardwood plinth but i suspect its probably the best material to use if you know how to keep it stable in a constrained layer arrangement. at the current rate of progress this one's a few months away from reality anyway. i'd love to do another version in layers of solid hardwood and another in acrylic just for fun but i may be too old by the time they're finished to actually enjoy them! best regards peter w
Peter, Amazing. You have really created a piece of art and craftsmanship. In the pic titled "Lenco 78" is that a photo of the design, or the actual plinth?
Please include arm, stereo components and how she sounds when you get there. Great job!
Holy Leapin' Mother O' Invention!!! That is one beeOOtiful design Peter, you've really outdone yourself and others!! Now what we really wanna know is this: how does it sound :-)?!! You really should post this on the new Home Despot thread to draw attention to it. This is gonna start a new Arms Race!! Gotta go now and design me a new beauty ;-)!!
