Increase speed of arm drop

[AFX]

Can someone please tell me how to make the tonearm movement up and down quicker via the lever. Mine seems a little slow . . .

[Barry]

The only way to increase the rate of arm descent, would be to replace the fluid in the lowering device with something having a lower viscosity.

[Mr Kipling]

Add a dirty great weight to the headshell.

There's always an answer to these things.

[walpurgis]

Add a dirty great weight to the headshell.

There's always an answer to these things.

I knew somebody would have the answer.

(actually, if you do that and balance the arm again to correct tracking force, the arm lifter may be even slower due to the greater inertia!)

[Andrei]

I don't know how slow it drops, measured in minutes or seconds, but I would say as a matter of principle that a slow drop is better than a fast drop. The cantilever is delicate and one of the things I like about my Jelco tonearm is that it drops much more slowly than the stock technics arm it replaced.

[Mr Kipling]

Add a dirty great weight to the headshell.

There's always an answer to these things.

I call it "The Appliance Of Science".

Alternatively, you could adopt the technique this guy uses:



To be serious, you could try removing the headshell and lift the arm and raise the the arm lift and clean the exposed section. It may be sticky. I once did this with a Hancock and it helped speed up it's rate of descent.

[Paul Lange]

The grease used in most lowering mechanisms is dampening grease, a very thick and sticky gloop that can seem more like sticky jam than a grease. Rega use Kilopoise but that costs around £80 a tin and is probably enough to grease a few thousand mechanisms. I recently re-greased the mechanism in my Rega tonearm with a tube if Tamiya dampening grease. A tiny tube costs around £10 on ebay, but you only need to use a tiny amount. It comes in three grades: soft, medium and hard, I used hard. As to which one you need I can't say, may be that the grease on your arm has dried up a bit making far to thick, or that the grease is good and the drop is meant to be slow. If you do re-grease you will need to clean all of the old grease out.

[Mr Kipling]

The grease used in most lowering mechanisms is dampening grease, a very thick and sticky gloop that can seem more like sticky jam than a grease. Rega use Kilopoise but that costs around £80 a tin and is probably enough to grease a few thousand mechanisms. I recently re-greased the mechanism in my Rega tonearm with a tube if Tamiya dampening grease. A tiny tube costs around £10 on ebay, but you only need to use a tiny amount. It comes in three grades: soft, medium and hard, I used hard. As to which one you need I can't say, may be that the grease on your arm has dried up a bit making far to thick, or that the grease is good and the drop is meant to be slow. If you do re-grease you will need to clean all of the old grease out.

I'd use jam (strawberry).

[struth]

My sme is pretty slow but smooth and it gently lays the cart down instead of the Rega's heavier drop......Patience is a virtue.

[Clive197]

Leave it alone. You only need to worry if the arm drops like a brick.