Transcriptors Spyder restoring

[clack]

Hi everybody, a couple of months ago I have been contacted by a fellow that has been lucky enough to obtain from Transcriptors a Spyder turntable, not before the usual waiting and struggle.
The turntable he received had all the problems described by many before.
http://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=36262&p=573494#p573494
It is not possible to run it at the right speed, no matter if 33 or 45, beyond very strong speed fluctuations.
In a word, it was unusable.

Once the turntable has been checked, it was obvious that the power supply could not give the voltage needed by the motor to run correctly. Mechanically it had an excessive slack for all the parts that should be of the most precision, in order to allow the table to turn correctly and sound the way it should.

The first part of the job regarded the power supply, that had the modification needed to give the motor the voltage it needs to run correctly at both speeds.
After that, the power supply has been given a mains switch, so the inner parts do not remain connected to the mains all the time, followed by a fuse placed before the transformer, just to comply the usual safety rules.
A last touch regarded placing a blue led behind the speed selector. So it remains hidden but its light is reflected nicely by the metal panel, indicating when the power supply is on.

The mechanical part of the job was the hardest. First of all there has been to find a workshop that accepted to do the work, something that seems not so easy nowadays.
After a long search I found a guy who works professionally with lathes, patient enough to complete the work the way it needed.
First he checked with his gauges and verified that between the frame and the pivot assembly there was a slack of more than half a millimeter.

So we began making on the main frame a new seat for the lower part of the spindle assembly, the one inside which the bearing ball is placed. The spindle assembly itself needed to be completely rebuilt in all of its parts: the lower that goes inside the main frame, the upper that supports the platter and a new brass bushing as well.
The spindle originally supplied with the turntable was clearly bended, so also for it a rebuilding has been made.
This has been the most difficult part of the mechanical job: we had to build two spindles before obtaining the precision that I wanted.
Now the spindle, when left placed in its seat, remains up and needs some help to get all the way down, till it touches the bearing ball.
When it is pushed down after the obvious lubrication of the parts involved, not only the air inside the receptacle offers a remarkable resistance, but it is possible to hear it getting out, such is the precision of the parts.
Even when the spindle is pulled out a resistance is experienced, caused by the difficult entering of the air into the pivot seat.

Now the turntable is able to keep the correct speed even after many hours of working, both at 33 and 45 RPM, without audible fluctuation.

Equipped with a Rega RB 250 tonearm and a Nagaoka MP 200 cartridge sounds remakably well, with an ease of informations recovering and an authority worth of more revered machines.

http://i61.tinypic.com/2552oic.jpg
Here the turntable after refurbishing

http://i60.tinypic.com/20h7xgp.jpg
New spindle assembly and seat with the original ones on the left

[paskinn]

Congratulations on 'saving' a bit of turntable history...a real work of determination and love; and just think, you now have one of the very few such decks working properly.
I have a nice Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference deck, which Michell happily service. Would they help with your Spyer?
It is good to see such high quality restoration going on.

[hifi_dave]

I believe the Spyder is a recent model from the Son of the man who started Transcriptor and nothing to do with J.A.Michell Engineering.

[clack]

Congratulations on 'saving' a bit of turntable history...a real work of determination and love; and just think, you now have one of the very few such decks working properly.
I have a nice Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference deck, which Michell happily service. Would they help with your Spyer?
It is good to see such high quality restoration going on.

Thank you Peter for your nice words. I am not the owner of the turntable,who is a guy that contacted me for restoring it.
Anyway it has been a rewarding work. I think that from each there is always something to learn, when one is willing to improve his knowledge and experience.
Yes, probably Michell would have helped for it as well. But, you know, from Italy, maybe the shipment costs would have been more than the ones involved with the actual work. Apart that, it would have been no fun having someone else restoring it. :)

[clack]

I believe the Spyder is a recent model from the Son of the man who started Transcriptor and nothing to do with J.A.Michell Engineering.

Yes Dave, the Spyder is a recent model.
According to what can be read in some discussion areas involved with turntables, probably in a few years a Spyder properly working will be rarer than one of those beautiful models from the historic production of Transcriptor. Of course the Spyder will never have the fascination of the machines made by the man who started Transcriptors.

[paskinn]

The way I see this, the Spyder is a continuation of the design theme established fifty years ago, by the original Transcriptors. That first great design established a whole new design ethos....the 'open architecture' look . At the time it seemed revolutionary, and to my eyes it still appears remarkable in 2014. Numerous decks followed this path, including the Michell decks and Oracle, later, SME.
The Spyder was created by the son of the original designer, and thus becomes part of the history. What's more , from the pics it is nice looking too. Shame it was so poorly made! Certainly worth restoring.

[clack]

Well, probably you are right. There is a continuity for sure between the Transcriptors historic models and the Spyder. Of course the project of the Spyder is bound to the simplicity needed today to put on the market a turntable not so expensive that only the usual happy few can allow it.
Such simplicity has a positive reflection for the sound performance as well, while the solutions that made the historic Transcriptors models so exceptional would be priceless today.
The historic Transcriptors are recognized by many as the most exotic turntables of their time, with their unique appearance coupled with performance often said to be not quite at the top. The Spyder maybe has a better balancing between look and sound, with the first that is pleasant but not so special for the nowadays standards and the latter that allow it to give many satisfactions to the owner, once its defects have been corrected.
Only the future can say if the Spyder will be seen with the same respect of the older models. IMO, probably its historic value will be in the very few samples able to work correctly.